Pastry chef Emma McGahern joins again with her delicious ultimate carrot cake recipe. Find more from Emma on Instagram @doyoselfaflavour…
[restrict]Carrot cake has always been my go-to comfort food and over the years I have tried many many different recipes which have all come together in this, my ultimate carrot cake. One thing that I think is most important when making a carrot cake is organic fresh carrots – you really can taste the difference.
Ingredients
Dry:
160g Plain Flour
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Cardamom
½ tsp Grated Fresh Nutmeg
Other:
1 Egg
1 Egg Yolk
200g Veg Oil
100g Caster Sugar
70g Brown Sugar
170g Grated organic Carrot – I personally prefer using the a fine grater
80g Pecans, lightly toasted and chopped (but you can use whatever your favourite nut/nut combination you like)
50g Desiccated Coconut (if you don’t like coconut you can leave it out and bring the flour up to 200g)
2 Egg Whites
Pinch of Salt
Method
- Lightly grease a 20 cm cake tin with parchment paper on the bottom
- Pre heat oven to 170C
- In a bowl sift all dry ingredients, give them a good mix
- Lightly whisk your egg yolk and whole egg
- With an electric whisk beat the veg oil and sugars for a 2-3 minutes on a medium speed till, then slowly add in the beaten eggs and mix for a further minute
- Then add in the grated carrots, pecan and coconut, then fold in your dry ingredients – don’t over mix
- In a separate bowl whisk your egg whites and a pinch of salt on a high speed to form stiff peaks
- Fold the egg whites in 3 additions, trying not to over mix
- Pour into the cake tin and bake for approximately 45 mins – it should be lightly brown and a skewer should come out clean
- Leave cool completely in the tin
Cream Cheese Topping:
170g Cream cheese @ room temp
126g Unsalted Butter @ room temp
300g Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla extract1. With an electric whisk beat your butter and cream cheese (it’s very important that both the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature)
2. Once well combined start adding in the icing sugar in 3 additions (be careful it might go everywhere!)
3. Then add in the vanilla
4. If you find it’s a bit runny pop it into the fridge for 15-20 minutes
5. Assemble [/restrict]
