Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

I have posted a carrot cake recipe before I know, and it is a brilliant recipe for a classic carrot cake. What I wanted to make was a carrot cake with a bit of a twist. This recipe is slightly adapted to a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. This for me is perfect summer carrot cake- it has the richness from the flavours of the spices, nuts and raisins, freshness from pineapple and the absolute indulgence from the fluffy frosting.

Ingredients

220 g shredded carrots
3 eggs
180 ml buttermilk
180 ml vegetable oil/ sunflower oil
250 g granulated sugar
50 g soft brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp clove
1 tsp ginger powder
¼ tsp nutmeg powder (optional)
¼ tsp salt
250 g plain flour
2 tsp soda bi carbonate
115 g walnuts (optional)
75 g coconut flour or sweetened coconut flakes (optional)
handful of raisins (optional)
1 can (8 ounces) of pineapple chunks or rings in its own juices

I was out of buttermilk so I made my own. I took the same volume of milk and added a squeeze of lemon to it, about 2 tbsp of lemon juice roughly, stirred it and let it sit for 5 minutes and used it as regular buttermilk.

1. Pre heat the fan oven to 175 ˚C . Grease and line 8” cake tin.
2. In a bowl, sift plain flour, cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg, salt and baking soda together.
3. In another bowl combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugars and vanilla and mix them together till well combined.
4. Now, if you are using pineapple rings, cut it into chunks. Drain the pineapple of its juice and just pat dry on a paper towel.
5. I like to soak of the shredded carrots on a paper towel as well so that the mixture is not over wet.
6. In a separate bowl combine the shredded carrots, pineapple chunks, coconut flakes, raisins and walnuts. As I said, the last 3 ingredients are optional and not everyone likes these textures or flavours but it really works for me. I love the taste of coconut which is ever so slightly in this cake and then the richness with raisins and then the walnuts.
7. Add the flour mixture from step 2 to the egg mixture from step 3 and mix till just combined.
8. With a spatula, add the carrot mixture to the flour batter and mix till combined.
9. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1- 11/4 hour till a skewer comes out clean.
10. Cool on a wire rack.

For the cream cheese frosting:

I made the cream cheese frosting judging more by its taste and consistency and actual weights. But roughly I used :

110 g unsalted butter at room temperature
400-450 g full fat cream cheese
300-350 g of icing sugar (I usually add ¾ of the total weight and taste as I go to get the kind of sweetness that suits me)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter and cream cheese till light and fluffy, about 5-7 minutes, add icing sugar and incorporate. Add vanilla extract and beat it in.

To assemble the cake- cut the cake into half and use 1/3 ^rd of the frosting to fill the cake and use the rest of the frosting to cover the cake.

To decorate, I used some marzipan and coloured them orange and green. Make small carrots out of the orange ones and use the green marzipan to make the carrot tops. Decorate the cake with chopped up walnuts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Black Forest Cake

Black forest cake always reminds me of birthdays when I was a kid, as this was one of the most common cakes in birthday parties and black forest pastries were one of my favourite as well. One of our friends recently decided to move back to her native Mauritius (so jealous of all the sun and warmth she is going to get while there seems no end to the winter in Scotland in sight!!)  and this being her favourite cake I decided to make this for her as a going away thing. The recipe and design for the cake is adapted from dessertsforbreakfast.com, her pictures are SO pretty and I absolutely loved the literal take on ‘black forest’, how very creative is that! Well it was about mid-night by the time I finished baking so my pictures were taken quite hurriedly and I could not really capture the effect due to lack of natural light.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

236 g caster sugar (1 cup)
236 g plain flour (1 cup)
236 g cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg, beaten lightly
¼ cup vegetable/sunflower oil
½ cup whole milk or semi-skimmed milk
½ cup boiling water

For cherry filling:

283 g dark cherries (about 1 can if using preserved cherries)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp kirsch/ brandy

For chocolate ganache:

85 g dark chocolate, chopped
70 ml whipping or double cream
1 tbsp butter

For cream filling:

1 cup mascarpone cheese
4 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup icing sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚ C (fan).
2. Mix sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
3. In another bowl mix together the beaten egg, oil and milk.
4. Put the dry ingredients in the food processor and mix. Then put in the wet ingredients in as well and mix till even. Then pour in the boiling water and mix again till the mixture is smooth.
5. Divide the cake batter into 2 baking tins (I used 6 inch ones) and bake for about 35 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack before assembling the cake.
   

   I cut off the dome of the cake to flatten out the top

6. For the cherry filling: Place the cherries in a saucepan with the sugar. Add cornflour to couple of tbsp of cherry juice from the can and make a paste. Add it to pan and bring the cherries to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in the kirsch and let the mixture cool.
7. For the chocolate ganache: Heat the cream and butter in a pan, till it is simmering and then pour it on the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for a minute and then slowly whip it to make the ganache smooth.
8. For the cream filling: Whip the cheese and cream in a bowl till the mixture forms soft peaks. Add the icing sugar and whip till it forms stiff peaks.

Now to assemble the cake: Take one of the cakes (they should have cooled down by now), layer it with half the chocolate ganache, top it with about 1/3^rd of the whipped cream and then add 2/3 of the cherry filling. Top with the other cake, now cover the whole cake with the rest of the chocolate ganache and whipped cream on the top and sides. Top up with the remaining cherry mix.

I made the decorations by melting chocolate and piping them on a parchment paper, cooling them and then just stuck them to the cake. You can decorate as you want, with chocolate shavings or curls as well.

The ingredient list and the steps involved might make this cake look a bit daunting but honestly this was such an easy cake to make, you just need to get the different components together. The only thing difficult was the number of bowls and pans and pots I had to use, such that I was running out of space in my kitchen!!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Birthday Cake

This is one the best chocolate cake recipes ever! I have used several chocolate cake recipes before but this is definitely the keeper. This cake is very moist, still quite light and very chocolatey. I got the recipe from sweetapolita.com- she does the most amazing cakes!

The measurements here will make you 3 x 6″ cakes or can try making one big cake as well. I used one and a half times to make 4 x 7″ cakes. What you will need is:

180 gm plain flour
275 gm caster sugar
60 gm cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
75 ml vegetable oil
140 ml buttermilk
130 ml hot coffee ( I used about 2 tbsp of instant coffee in hot water, you can always used brewed coffee as well)
2 eggs at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla essence

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C (fan). Adjust temperature according to your oven.
2. Grease and line the baking tins.
3. Sift all the ingredients together.
4. I used the food processor- put all the ingredients (sifted and the rest) together and mix till the batter comes to a semi-liquid state without lumps.
5. Pour the mixture into the baking tins and bake in the preheated oven. After about 20 mins rotate the tins so there is an even bake. Bake for a total of about 35 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean.
6. Cool the cakes on wire rack.

Frosting: 187 gm unsalted butter at room temperature
200 gm sifted icing sugar
1 1/2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Whip the butter till it is pale and creamy for about 8 minutes. Add rest of the ingredients and whip for another minutes at low speed and then at medium speed for 5-6 minutes.
I divided this frosting in three bowls. I wanted to use pastel colours so I added the gel food colours till I got the required shades.

To assemble the cake, I layered all the cakes with the frosting, then put a thin layer of frosting on the cake to bind in all the crumbs and then frost with the different colours. I tried to do pastel swirls as explained here http://sweetapolita.com/2012/06/pastel-swirl-cake-video-tutorial/ . Well my swirls were not as pretty and colours not as bright but it was not too far off either! I was happy with the cake!

I got these awesome stencils from a friend for my birthday! There are such fun designs, I can’t wait to use them!

Pineapple upside down cake (with a twist)

My birthday is round the corner…well another couple of weeks left actually but I do get excited about my birthday more than a month ahead! I like birthdays, specially my own :p. Earlier in July my husband gave me a ‘practice birthday present’, a month to go for real birthday present 🙂 he had done that last year as well…I am hoping it becomes a tradition 😉 cannot say no to gifts now, can I? Well, I got a lovely Moleskin recipe journal. To start off my journal, I thought I would make one of my husband’s favourite cakes but with a little twist. A pineapple upside down cake flavoured with coconut, since the combination of pineapple and coconut is not only a classic, it is absolutely fantastic.

Ingredients:

200 gm softened butter
200 gm caster sugar
200 gm self raising flour
3 tbsp coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
For the pineapple layer
50 gm softened butter
50 gm soft brown sugar (you can use white sugar if you do not have brown sugar )
tin of pineapple in syrup
Cherries or currants, whatever you prefer

1. Preheat the oven at 160 ˚C fan. Line an 8” cake tin with baking sheet.
2. To layer the pineapple, beat the 50 gm softened butter and the brown sugar till it is creamed together.
3. Now spread it out at the bottom of the tin and 2/3 up the sides as well.
4. Arrange the pineapple, either rings or pieces, at the bottom. You can use cherries or currants as I have used with the pineapple.
5. For the cake, I put all the cake ingredients together in the food processor along with about 2 tbsp of the pineapple syrup and mixed it till the batter is smooth and consistent. If the batter is too thick add another couple of tbsp of syrup.
6. Now pour the cake batter in the prepared tin.
7. Bake in the centre of the oven for 40-45 minutes or till the knife comes out clean.

Enjoy!!

Mocha Genoise Layer Cake

Hello hello!

Over two months now, about time to get back to my blog. June had been a hectic but incredibly exciting month. My parents were visiting us here in Scotland for a bit. We took them around to a few places around Scotland and a long weekend in London. I do love London, but mostly as a tourist, not sure I could cope with living there. And one of the most exciting things about London is the food culture. The variety of cuisines is amazing! I managed to make stops at the Laudrée in Covent Garden London for their famous macarons and also had amazing Japanese confectionery at Minamoto Kitchoan.

Having finally settled down into usual routine of work home and life, though I do miss my parents and all the travelling, but I happy to get more time to do some baking.

The first multi-layered decorated cake I made was for my husband’s birthday. It was a chocolate genoise cake with mocha caramel frosting. I had never made genoise cake before and I really liked how it came out, extremely light and spongy.

Chocolate genoise cake recipe:

3 tbsp clarified butter (heat the butter till it is clear liquid but do not burn)
1 tsp vanilla extract
65 gm plain flour
30 gm cocoa
4 eggs
135 gm granulated sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 ˚C . I use fan oven so please adjust temperature according to your oven.
2. Sift flour and cocoa together and keep aside.
3. Boil some water in a pan and simmer. Combine eggs and sugar in another bowl and keep it over the simmering water and beat the egg sugar mixture till the egg mixture is lukewarm.
4. Then take the pan off the heat and keep beating the eggs till it triples in volume and it resembles softly whipped cream.
5. Now fold in the flour mixture in 3 parts.
6. Add the vanilla extract to the clarified butter.
7. Scoop out a bowl full of the flour egg mixture into the vanilla butter and fold in till butter is completely combined. Then fold this into the rest of the batter.
8. Divide the batter into 2 x 8” greased and lined cake tins and bake at 180 ˚C. It takes about 30 minutes or till the cake shrinks away from the sides and springs back on pressing.
9. Cool the cake on a wire rack.
10. This can be stored in fridge for couple of days.

And that is what I did. I had made 4 cakes a day before actually assembling it together and wrapped it in cling film once it was completely cooled, this I stored in fridge.

Genoise cake is very light and a bit dry. I moistened it with a coffee syrup. Dissolve 2-3 tsp of instant coffee, depending on how strong coffee flavoring you want, in ½ cup of hot water. Add 3 tsp of sugar to the syrup and stir to dissolve.

Unfortunately I had not made a note of the  mocha caramel frosting I made for this cake. You can use chocolate, caramel , butterscotch or just plain mocha frosting with this cake. I have previously used Mocha whipped cream frosting from joyofbaking.com and it will go brilliantly with this cake. Here is the recipe for the frosting:

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp instant coffee
240 ml whipping cream

In a cold bowl add the vanilla extract, sugar, cocoa and coffee. Add a splash of the cold whipping cream and mix to make a paste so that the coffee dissolves. Then add the rest of whipping cream and beat with a hand mixer till it forms soft peak.

To assemble the cake, except for the bottom face of the last cake, I brushed the top and bottom faces of all the cakes with the coffee syrup. A tip here, be liberal with the syrup soaking , I had not done it enough and hence my cake was a tad bit dry.

Then layer the cakes with icing between each layer, spread the frosting on the top and the sides to make it smooth. You can decorate as you want. I made a plain and white chocolate collar for this cake.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!