There have not been any post for a long while now and the reason is that I have been on a long travel since before christamas holidays. Experienced fantastic flavors of turkish cuisine, seen ultra modern Dubai in open air from a big double decker and drove through the lights of Abu Dhabi under dark nightfall.
Now as I am back, there is time to update my blog again. Unfortunately, my laptop crashed and I was not able to save all the thousands of pictures I had filed there, among them all of the photos of my baking.
Anyways, recently I baked all-time favorite spicy, moist carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. This recipe which I found in a norwegian online magazine is amazing and was rated highest by the readers. I can understand why!
I have tested some other carrot cake recipes before, but no cake has ever came out this moist, flavorful and amazing in texture and teste. This recipe is full of lovely spices that gives the special touch to the cake. As you may know, carrot cake become more moist and develops taste and texture when it gets to set over night. Therefore it is a advantage to make it night before and you will not only save time!
I n g r e d i e n t s
4 eggs
4 dl sugar
4 dl all-purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon, ground
2 tsp cardamom, ground
1,5 tsp ginger powder
1,5 tsp muscat nut, ground
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder (optional)
8 dl (500-600 g) carrots, grated
2 dl oil (sunrose or other neutral)
Grease an baking tray 30 x 40 cm or spring form 26 cm
1. Roughly grate the carrots on a medium sized grater
2. In a medium bowl mix flour, cinnamon powder, cardamom powder, ginger powder, ground muscat nut, vanilla sugar, baking soda and baking powder
3. Whisk eggs and sugar together until a fluffy eggnog forms (2-3 mins)
4. Add the flour mixture and mix for about 30 seconds till corporated
5. Add oil followed by the grated carrots, mix together
6. Pour the batter in baking tray
Bake in a moderately hot oven at 175C for about 40-45 minutes at the lowest rack until firm to the touch (pierce to check if the cake pin comes out clean, if it does, it's ready)
Cream Cheese Frosting
60 g butter
100 g cream cheese, natural
175-200 g icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1. Mix together butter and cream cheese
2. Add vanilla sugar and icing sugar, mix until there are no lumps and the frosting is smooth
3. Mix in the lemon juice
Let stand in the fridge for a while so that it can set a little and get more firm. The cake has to be chilled throughoutly before putting on the frosting or it may melt.
You may cut the cake in half (if baked in spring form) and put frosting in the middle also. This cream cheese frosting recipe usually holds for an average layer of frosting on the cake, if you want a really thick frosting, you may double the recipe.