Carrot sandwich cake

I love carrot cake but it dawned on me recently, in one of my ‘thinking about cake’ moments that you don’t usually see it served as a sandwich cake.  It’s usually a traybake or cupcake.

The thought was tucked away in the part of my brain given over to storing cake related matters (about 3/4s of my brain) and resurfaced when I was browsing in a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern grocery store and came across carrot jam.  It’s a sweet jam for spreading on toast or teacakes, not a savoury sort you’d serve with cold meats or cheese...in other words, perfect for being the filling in a sandwich cake.

Personally I love a carrot cake with raisins but, as I was serving this when raisin-haters were present, I stuck with walnuts.  You can easily substitute raisins for walnuts, or use a mixture of the two.

A classic cream cheese frosting is all that’s required to cover the cake.  It is the perfect accompaniment for carrot cake so why change it?  The sponge is incredibly light and carries the satisfyingly thick and tangy frosting perfectly. 

It’s a good time of year to make carrot cake – it has Christmas spicing but no Christmas connotations so the ‘bah humbug’ brigade cannot object to it or moan about Christmas starting too early.  I think of it as Christmas by stealth!

Ingredients

For the sponges:

225g self raising flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon (not a typo) mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
200ml sunflower/vegetable/light olive oil – any oil suitable for baking
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g walnuts – finely chopped (You can use raisins instead if you prefer)
225g carrots (about 3 medium carrots) –grated

To sandwich: carrot jam, or apricot if you prefer

For the frosting:

350g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
160g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To decorate: walnut pieces

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Line two 20cm round, loose bottomed sandwich tins with baking paper.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, mixed spice, ginger and sugar in a large bowl.

Add the eggs, oil and vanilla and stir until well combined.

Stir in the walnuts and grated carrot.

Spoon into the prepared baking tins.  The mix will be quite runny and will find its own level.  It won’t look like a lot of batter but don’t worry, it rises considerably during baking.

Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, before turning the cakes out and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

The sponges can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight tin.

Now make the frosting: beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and whippy.

Add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat again until smooth.

Place one sponge on the serving plate and spread over the jam of your choice.  You can also use a little of the frosting too, if you wish.

Place the other sponge on top.

Spread the icing over the top and sides of the cake.

Decorate as desired with walnut pieces.

Store in the fridge until required – take out of the fridge 20-30 minutes before you wish to serve.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.