Chocolate orange carrot cake

I’ve never baked (or indeed seen, or eaten) a chocolate carrot cake before.  It seemed the perfect cake given the increasingly autumnal feel in the air – soft sponge with chocolate and spice; it would be a good Bonfire Night cake too.  Funny how we associate flavours with seasons/events.

Being a carrot cake this is a very light sponge.  The brown sugar adds a caramel sweetness which always works well with spice.  The cocoa adds a chocolately depth.  The sultanas are entirely optional but, in my world, always make everything better so I added some!  I ‘ummed and aaaaahed’ over whether to make this as a single sponge or to make as a sandwich style cake.  In truth, I think it would work as either, but I was in the mood for a little cream cheese frosting so whipped up an orange one to compliment the zest in the cake.

I like it when bakes evolve like this, with a series of little decisions being made along the way to create the finished item.  This was a very popular cake and something a little bit different which, 8 years into my blog, feels increasingly difficult to achieve!

The flavours of this cake work well together but all remain identifiable because they hit your palate at different times.  The initial hit is the chocolate sweetness; this is cleaned away by the sharp cream cheese frosting and you are left with a fruit orange spice flavour.  It comes in three distinct waves.  Once I spotted this I took my time over each mouthful (unlike me) and ticked the stages of flavour off each time...this is how I entertain myself!

Mr CC was very sceptical about this cake initially.  When I said to him I was making a chocolate orange carrot cake he gave me a look which I can only describe as a ‘what you talking bout Willis?’ look (a reference that you will need to be a certain age to get!) but, when he tasted it, he really liked it!

Ingredients

For the sponge:

280g soft light brown sugar
200g self raising flour
80g cocoa powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Optional: 50g sultanas
zest of 1 orange (save the rest of the orange for the buttercream)
4 eggs
200ml sunflower oil – or any flavourless oil, I used light olive oil suitable for baking
100ml milk
200g carrots, grated – this equates to approx 3 medium carrots

For the buttercream:
350g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
160g icing sugar
1 -2 tablespoons orange juice

To decorate: chocolate sprinkles

Method

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

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

Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together e.g. light brown sugar, self raising flour, cocoa, bicarb, mixed spice, cinnamon and – if using - sultanas.

Place all the wet ingredients in a large jug e.g. orange zest, eggs, oil, milk and carrots and beat together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together.

Divide equally between the cake pans.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes (start checking after 30 minutes) or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tins, on a wire rack, for about 30 minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely.

Now make the filling: Beat the cream cheese and butter until soft, light and whippy.

Add the icing sugar and beat well.

Add the orange juice – start with just one tablespoon – and beat until you have a light, spreadable buttercream.  Add more orange juice if required.

Place one sponge on the serving plate and spread about 1/3 of the buttercream over the top.

Place the remaining sponge on top.

Cover the top and sides with the frosting.

Cover the top with chocolate sprinkles.

Refrigerate until about 20 minutes before serving.

Serve in generous slices with a cup of tea.

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

Eat.

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.

Coconut carrot traybake

 

I’m always drawn to recipes that are familiar but with a new twist to them – this is a perfect example; it’s a carrot traybake but unlike most carrot cake recipes it’s a butter cake rather than an oil based recipe.  It also has a crunchy coconut topping rather than cream cheese frosting.  Both were really good ‘tweaks’.

This is such a light cake, amazingly so.  I thought the whole point of using oil in carrot cakes was to achieve lightness of sponge but this recipe produced the softest, fluffiest carrot cake I’ve ever eaten.  Without a doubt it will be my ‘go to’ carrot cake recipe from now on.

I added sultanas because, frankly, everything’s better with sultanas but you could replace them with nuts or simply omit them if they’re not your thing.  Sultanas add such a sweet, juicy little pop of joy to everything and it works very well against this cake’s crunchy topping.

The topping turns crunchy and toasted in the oven and adds a new texture to carrot cake.  I didn’t even miss the cream cheese frosting...and that’s saying something!  It definitely gave the whole cake a lighter feel.

Grating carrot has to be one of my least favourite tasks in baking.  I see people grate things on TV and it looks so easy, but my carrot was spraying everywhere and I couldn’t get a proper grip on it.  Of course, my food processor has grating discs, and I even have a plug in kitchen grater.  But did I use them?  No.  I used my metal grater so I could moan about it!

Ingredients

For the cake:

250g unsalted butter
300g light muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
200g self raising flour
50g desiccated coconut
200g grated carrot (about 3 medium carrots)
2 teaspoons mixed spice
Optional: 150g sultanas

For the topping:

50g unsalted butter, melted
85g desiccated coconut
25g light muscovado sugar

Method

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

Grease a 30cm x 20cm traybake pan or roasting tin.

Start by making the cake: melt the butter gently in a large pan (it needs to be big enough to take all the cake ingredients); take your time with this as you do not want the butter to brown.

Leave to cool for five minutes.

Beat in the sugar, vanilla and eggs.  Make sure the mix is smooth and the eggs are well incorporated.

Stir in the flour, coconut, carrot, spice and sultanas (if using).

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes (or until virtually baked).

Meanwhile, make the topping: melt the butter and stir the coconut and sugar into it.

If it dries out while you’re waiting for the cake to cook, a dash of milk will moisten it up – but only a tiny amount; less than a teaspoon.

Take the cake from the oven and gently spread the topping over it.  I found the best way to do this was the back of a wooden spoon and my fingers.

Bake for a further ten minutes until the topping is golden.

Leave in the tin to cool before cutting into squares.

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

Eat.

Carrot and cream cheese cupcakes

 

Tonight is Samhain – or to use it’s more common name nowadays – Halloween.  The night marks a time when the "door" to the Otherworld opens enough for the souls of the dead, and other beings, to come into our world.  Spooky, eh?

With all these souls of the dead turning up unannounced, the chances are you’ll need some cake to placate them.  What better than some spicy carrot cupcakes with lusciously thick cream cheese frosting?

Unlike many carrot cakes this one doesn’t contain nuts or dried fruit, resulting in a lighter than air sponge.  It was difficult to cut for a photo because the sponge just crumbled into fat juicy crumbs.  I rather like the witch who has decided to embed herself in the frosting – she looks ever so comfortable!

I’m not really one for Halloween and the commercialisation thereof, but when I saw the most beautifully round, unblemished little pumpkin in my local supermarket – for just £1 – I knew I had to have it.  I would rather eat my own feet than pumpkin so the only option was to turn my perfect pumpkin into a little personality.  So here we are – my first ever attempt at pumpkin carving.  Try as I might, I just couldn’t get him to look evil – there are happy pumpkins, surely? 

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

175g muscovado sugar
100g wholemeal self raising flour
100g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 orange – zest
150ml sunflower or any flavourless cooking oil – I used light olive oil (for baking and roasting)
2 eggs
200g carrots – grated (about 2 normal sized carrots)
1 tablespoon orange juice

For the frosting:

100g unsalted butter – at room temperature
300g cream cheese – at room temperature (I used Philly)
100g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To decorate: Sprinkles of your choice

Method

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

Line a 12 hole cupcake pan with paper cases.

Mix together the sugar, flours, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice and orange zest.

In a jug, measure out the oil and then add the eggs; whisk lightly so they are combined.

Stir the oil into the dry mixture.

Stir in the grated carrot and orange juice.

Spoon into the paper cases – take care to be neat; it’s tricky to spoon because of the carrot – the mix will want to slide off the spoon!

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Now make the frosting: beat the butter until it is soft and whippy.

Beat in the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla.

Spoon onto the cupcakes in generous dollops.  This isn’t a frosting to do fancy piping with!

Decorate as desired – I used witch, spider and bat sprinkles.

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

Eat.

Aargau carrot cake

Waiting to board my plane home at Zurich airport, I came across a book called “A little Swiss cookbook” by Jacqueline Martinet, from which this recipe hails.


The recipe for Aargau carrot cake caught my eye as I’d purchased a bag of marzipan carrots in Zurich and didn’t have a clue what I’d use them for!


Aargau is a canton north of Zurich famed for agriculture. This carrot cake recipe is traditional to the region and is different to carrot cakes that I’ve previously come across. If you glance at the ingredients you will notice that there is no oil or fat at all but a hefty slug of ground almonds. My kind of cake! The cake is very moist and incredibly light - it balances perfectly with the sweet icing.


The recipe provided quantities in cups too, so for my American readers I’ve included these in the ingredients list below; I can’t vouch for how accurate the conversion is as I used the metric quantities.


Ingredients:
For the cake:
3 eggs, separated
150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
Juice and rind of one lemon (I omitted this and used a little milk instead to slacken the mix)
150g (1 cup) grated raw carrot
250g (1 cup) ground almonds
50g (1/4 cup) self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the icing:
150g (3/4 cup) icing sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I used water)

To decorate: marzipan carrots

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
- Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat until well combined.
- Add the lemon, carrot, almonds, flour and baking powder and mix until thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
- Fold one spoonful of the whites into the carrot mix to slacken the mix and make the rest of the whites easier to fold in.
- Fold in the rest of the whites.
- Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Mine took exactly 45 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack.
- When the cake is cold it can be iced. Simply mix the icing sugar and lemon juice (or water) together until you have a thick glossy icing. You may need to add a little more liquid but don’t add too much at a time.
- Pour over the cake and place the marzipan carrots on top.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

Brussel Sprout cake

I know that I’ve probably lost most of you with the title of this one! Many people would look more favourably on a cake made from toxic waste than the humble brussel sprout. Maybe the cake is named so purely for the shock factor; however, if you glance at the ingredients you’ll notice that it’s basically a carrot cake with a mischievous twist.


Many cakes featuring vegetables are now commonplace; for example, carrot cake, courgette cake, chocolate and beetroot cake. I’ve even seen recipes that use mash potato. So why not the least loved vegetable in the UK? (I’m not making this up – in 2002 a national poll was conducted to tell us what we already knew). For the avoidance of doubt, these are the babies in question:


The recipe was featured in an article in the Times about Felice Tocchini – a man with perhaps the best job title ever: Chef and Sprout campaigner!

Just in case you’re a sprout fanatic (who isn't?) and wish to mingle with your peer group, please note that this year’s British Sprout Festival will be held 13-14 November in Worcester.

I have to admit that I was drawn to this recipe because I hate sprouts and thought it might convert me. Whilst raw, the mix did smell a bit sprouty...and when it was cooking too. Yum – are your tastebuds watering yet? When cooked it...god, I really want to say that it didn’t smell sprouty...but I can’t lie...it still smelled sprouty. However, this could be me. I am very anti-sprout. No one else could smell sprouts or taste them. You can only just see the flecks of green:


Bizarrely, the only criticism this cake got was that the frosting was a touch sweet. My eaters thought it tasted like any carrot cake but my sprout-radar detected the extra ingredient. Try it! If nothing else, it’s a talking point!


Ingredients:
For the cake:
2 eggs
125g caster sugar
100ml vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g self raising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
125g carrots, grated
125g brussel sprouts, grated (I did this in my electric mini-chopper)
35g walnuts, chopped
35g raisins or sultanas
25g desiccated coconut

For the frosting:
125g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
250g icing sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Walnut halves to decorate

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Grease and line a 20cm round tin or a 900g loaf tin. I made it in the round tin but actually think a loaf tin would be better.
- Beat the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla until well combined.
- Add the flour, cinnamon and ginger and beat for a few more minutes.
- Fold in the grated carrot, sprouts, walnuts, raisins and coconut.
- Spoon into the prepared tin and cook for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Mine took exactly 50 minutes.
- Leave to cool, in the tin, on a wire rack.
- Now make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese until soft and then beat in the icing sugar.
- Add vanilla extract to taste.
- Spread the frosting over the top of the cake and finish off with some walnut halves.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.