Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Heavenly Carrot Cake

Made this yesterday and it turned out wonderfully! Full of flavor and the frosting just makes the cake. Slightly labor intensive, but the taste...yum, it's worth it!

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

This delicious recipe is courtesy of Jamie Oliver and can be found in his cookbook, "Cook with Jamie."

Ingredients
Serves 8 to 10.
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 cups light-brown sugar
5 large eggs, separated
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 slightly heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup ground almonds
4 ounces shelled walnuts, chopped, plus more for garnish
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour, sifted
10 ounces carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
Sea salt
4 ounces mascarpone cheese
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 scant cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Zest and juice of two limes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-2-inch square baking pan (My note: I used this pan and there was way too much batter, it went all over the inside of my oven. Use your best judgment and use a 13 X 9 pan if you think there's too much batter) and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add orange zest and juice; pulse to combine. Add baking powder; pulse to combine. Add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger; pulse until mixture is well combined.
3. In a large bowl whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Gently fold in almonds, walnuts, flour, and carrots; fold cake mixture into egg white mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cake cool in the pan 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together mascarpone, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and lime zest and juice. Spread mixture over top of cooled cake and sprinkle with chopped walnuts if desired.

1 comment:

Brenda said...

That looks so good. But the words "labor intensive" really scare me. :D I like fast and easy.