It’s a classic in Australian baking. When I first came across this, I was in the heart of the Margaret River, WA and I didn’t understand – a cake with carrots sounded hilarious, but people were buying them like hot cakes. When I had my first bite, I was hooked. After opening my own shop, I knew I had to have my own take on it.
Ingredients:
The carrot cake (This recipe makes for a 20 cm ring by 5 cm height)
300g Carrots- 350g Sugar Dark brown
- 250g Flour
- 150g Pineapple (Fresh or tin)
- 150g Eggs (whole)
- 150g Oil (vegetable, canola, sunflower)
- 70g Coconut (Shredded)
- 10g Vanilla essence
- 8g Cinnamon (powder)
- 6g Bicarbonate soda
Lime cream cheese Icing
400g Cream cheese- 120g Butter (unsalted)
- 5g Lime zest (1 lime)
- 5g Vanilla essence
- 120g Icing sugar
- Decoration
- 20g Multicoloured balls
- 150g Walnuts
Method:
The Carrot Cake
Gather, weigh and measure all ingredients. Peel your carrots
Place the oil in a jug or far. Add all the whole eggs and the vanilla essence
Using a hand mixer, whisk or fork blend it all together and keep it aside.
Here, you can either use a bench mixer or doing it by hand too. In a clean bowl add the shredded or desiccated coconut.
Add the sift flour. Add the Brown sugar. You can make the recipe with white sugar too… However, the brown sugar will make your cake moister and softer for up to 5 days.. If it last that long i would be impressed.
Add the cinnamon powder and Bi-Carb soda.
Place the whisk on the bench mixer and slowly mix ingredients for 1 minute at speed 1.
Meanwhile, shred your carrots using a grater.
Add slowly all your liquid mixture (oil, eggs, vanilla essence) to the dry ingredients.
Start incorporating the grated carrots into the cake batter (Mixture).
Add a handful at the time (speed 1). We do not want an aerated cake here so there is no point to speed up.
Once you added all the carrots, chop your pineapple adding small pieces to the mix
Bam………. the Carrot Cake batter is done.
Prepare your cake tin and preheat the oven at 170 C
I use an open ring as it is very versatile and can do many other cakes with it. Like my layered Bavarois gateau in my previous video. Place a square of aluminium foil under the tin. the piece should be a little larger than the ring. See you have just created a cake tin. As you can see the foil comes up to about 1 cm to the outside of my ring. Give it a bit of oil spray. or brush a little bit of fat (oil, melted butter, coconut oil). Place the ring on a baking tray.
Baking the carrot cake
Whilst you are still preheating your oven at 170 C, place your carrot Cake batter in the tin. Once your oven reach 170 C place the tray in the oven and bake for about 1h20 min to 1h30 min
After 1h 20 min use a wooden skewer to check if its ready. If the skewer comes out clean, meaning with no wet batter on it, your cake is baked. If it still have wet batter on it bake for another 10 minutes. Let the cake cool down for 15 minutes.
Once cool down, prepare a tray or chopping board and a piece of baking paper.
Place the paper and the tray over the cake.
Turn it upside down. Why do i do that i hear you say ? as you bake a cake the center of the cake tends to rise (its what we call oven spring due to the heat and it is normal) but i want to avoid that and have a flat cake not a dome cake. Here is a tip of the trade just for you. Some bakers will put some weight on it too. As you can see in this photo the cake is compressed together and to the edge of the ring. Cool down for another 40 minutes.
As you can see in this photo the cake is compressed together and to the edge of the ring. Cool down for another 40 minutes.
Then remove the Aluminium foil. With a small knife, gently cut all around the edge of the cake against the ring. Remove the ring. Your Carrot Cake is ready. you can keep it like this if you wish for up to 5 days. You can freeze it well wrapped for up to 3 months.
Lime cream cheese Icing and finishing touch
Leave your butter and cream cheese out of the fridge to get to room temperature or soften.
Whilst my cake keeps cooling down and my oven is still hot, i am putting my walnuts onto a tray and roast them at 170C for 10 minutes. and let them cool down.
Meanwhile in a clean bowl add the soft butter. ( i used the bench mixer here but you can do it with a spatula or a whisk)
Add the creamGrate the lime over the bowl cheese.
Add the vanilla essence.
Grate the lime over the bowl.
Love the colour.
Add the icing sugar.
Using a spatula or the paddle of the bench mixer, combine all ingredients gently (speed 1), once combined, check if it is smooth enough.
Scrape down the side and bottom of the bowl to check if everything is smooth and free of lumps.
If not keep mixing until it is
And you are happy with it. The icing should be soft but not runny. You should be able to spread it easily.
Finishing and decorating your Carrot cake
Once cool down, chop the nuts.
Place a big dot of Icing on the cake
With a spatula spread the icing over the cake and on the sides.
Keep smoothing and level the icing with the spatula.
With your hand grab the chopped walnuts and push them against the cake.
Put the walnuts all over the side of the the cake
Using the left over of Icing, a piping bag and a star nozzle, decorate the cake.
There is so many style you can give. it is really up to you there.
Just have fun.
Keep piping. People love icing
This was made for a young lady, hence my girly style 🙂
Nice vibrant colours there.
Check that moisture there. yum….. It is indeed an amazing cake. I must say, i do NOW love this cake. Bon Appetit Frenchy
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