Moist and bursting with flavours from the carrots, pecan nuts, coconut, vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon, this foolproof cake can be eaten as is, or enhanced with my deliciously, smooth and silky Cream Cheese Topping.
Makes 16 slices and 4 – 5 muffins
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Preheat oven to Fan Oven 160°C/180°C/350°F/Gas 4
Scatter the pecan nuts onto a baking tray and roast in a pre-heated oven for 8 minutes. Leave to cool once cooked and set the 20 nuts aside to decorate the cake.
Whilst they are cooking, blitz the sliced carrots in a food processor until broken down.
Add the oil, yoghurt, eggs and vanilla and blitz until thoroughly mixed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Next add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, sugar and coconut. Pulse until nearly mixed in.
Add the pecan nuts (minus the 20 for the topping) and pulse briefly to mix in and slightly chop. Alternatively, chop and fold into the batter by hand.
Grate the carrot, remove the bowl from the processor and add this grated carrot and the sultanas. Fold into the batter by hand.
Transfer 750g – 800g of the batter into a lined 20cm/8in square cake tin. (I place the cake tin on the scales, zero the scales, and pour the batter directly into the tin.)
Divide the remaining batter equally into 4 – 5 muffin cases.
Cook in the centre of a preheated oven for 35 – 40 minutes. Place the cake tin on the top shelf and the muffin tin on the lower shelf. The muffins cook in around 30 – 35 minutes and the slice will take around 35 – 40 minutes.
When cooked, leave in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
To make in a food processor: put the room temperature butter, icing sugar and salt into the bowl of your food processor and beat until mixed.
Add the cream cheese or mascarpone and blitz again until mixed in. Do not over-beat at this stage. Your frosting is now ready to use.
To make using an electric whisk: put the butter and salt into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the icing sugar, whisking well in between each addition. (NB You may wish to first fold the icing sugar in with a spoon before whisking – this will help to stop the icing sugar clouding up and making a mess of your kitchen!)
Add the cream cheese or mascarpone and beat again until mixed in. Do not over-beat at this stage. Your frosting is now ready to use.
Make sure your cakes have completely cooled before icing.
Simply cover the cake with the cream cheese topping and make swirly patterns with a knife
Add the pecan nuts, slice and serve.
You can serve the muffins with or without the topping.
Equipment:
No food processor?
No problem. Simply grate all the carrots and chop the pecans. Mix the wet ingredients first and then fold in the dry ingredients.
Room temperature butter:
It is really important that the butter is at room temperature and soft enough to beat easily. If you have forgotten to take the butter out of the fridge and want to speed up the process, see here for information on softening butter.
Softening brown butter:
Have you ever gone into your kitchen cupboard for brown or muscovado sugar to find it is rock solid? There is a really simple solution to this, and it doesn’t involve a hammer and chisel! See here.
How do I store this cake?
Whilst this cake is best served at room temperature, the Cream Cheese Topping needs to be stored in the fridge. Allow the cake to come to room temperature before eating. This length of time this takes will depend entirely on how hot the outside temperature is.
Can this cake be frozen?
Yes it can be frozen! This cake freezes very well, in a sealed container, for up to 3 months. It can be frozen with or without the Silky Cream Cheese Topping.