Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing, Candied Carrot Peel and Caramel Drizzle

Hello people of the Earth!

If you've been on my blog before, you know I absolutely love everything related to cakes. Every time I think of making something for updating the blog, the thought process goes something like this:                                          

1. This time, I'm definitely gonna make something savory. There's a dominance of cakes on the blog.
2. *goes through recipe books and magazines for savory inspiration*
3. So many options. Figuring out a recipe won't be hard this time, for sure.
4. It's confusing now. I don't know if I should go with the Chinese noodles or the Thai steamed fish or the Italian Pasta.
5. *meanwhile, goes through cake books, videos and photos.*
6. There's too much Chinese, Thai and Italian stuff on the internet, anyways.
7. *thinks about a random reason of celebration in order to bake a cake.*
8. Maybe, just considering cakes is not that bad an idea. After all, everyone loves cake. Plus, the timing perfectly coincides with my bunny's monthly birthday!
9. Chuck savory, I'm gonna make a cake. There's just no reason not to, besides a hundred million cake blog posts already existing.                                             

I was off the blog for a long long time. So naturally, I had to come back with something awesome. This carrot cake, believe it or not, is life altering. I know, it is not something that you would normally classify as “gourmet”, or even “fancy”, for that matter, but sometimes, the simplest of things give us the most pleasure don’t they?

Coming back to the topic, yes, life altering. Let me walk you through the ingredients to explain this. a) Using oil instead of butter makes it that extra softer, and prevents it from becoming hard in the refrigerator. Note that any oil can be used, provided it is neutral in flavor. 

b) Yogurt acts as with multiple powers; i) moistening the cake ii) providing extra leavening power by reacting with baking soda (soda plus acid gives out carbon dioxide). 

c) Walnuts are toasted beforehand to proving textural variance. Dusting nuts in a flour to keep them suspended in the batter is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it works.

d) The brown sugar contains mollases, which helps in retaining moisture for a longer time.

e) The classic cream cheese icing is replaced with a lemon cream cheese frosting which provides a hint of freshness to cut through all the sweet taste.

f) The crisp carrot peel provides yet another textural component.

g) The caramel sauce, in addition to making it look pretty, complements the sponge as well as the icing really well.

CARROT CAKE

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

1. Grease and dust the baking pan/ loaf tin and line it with butter paper.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt with the spices and mix well.

3. Add the walnuts and raisins into the flour mixture and mix so as to coat each piece with flour.

 4. In another bowl, add the brown sugar, yogurt, oil and egg yolks.

5. Mix all the ingredients together to combine.

6. Add grated carrots to this mixture and fold to combine.

7. In a clean and dry bowl, whisk egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

8. Fold in the flour mixture and egg whites into the wet ingredients in three additions. (do not add all together)

9. Transfer the batter to the baking pan and put in the oven immediately. (You see all the air bubbles in the batter? It's precious, you don't want it to escape)

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

 1. Beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.

2. Beat the cream cheese until it becomes soft, then add in the butter, lemon juice and lemon zest and mix to combine.

3. Refrigerate the frosting for 1-2 hours, or until it becomes stiff enough to handle.

CANDIED CARROT PEEL

INGREDIENTS

 METHOD

1. Heat the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves.

2. Add the carrot peel and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

3. Drain the liquid and let the carrot peel stand until it is cold enough to handle.

4. Preheat the oven to 100 degree Celsius.

5. Arrange the carrot strips in a lined baking tray, as shown above, and bake until it is dry (not brittle), for about 40-45 minutes.

6. Wind the carrot strips on chopsticks to the shape desired, and return the baking tray to the oven, until the strips get brittle. This should take about 20-30 minutes.

CARAMEL SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

1. Heat water and sugar until it reaches an amber color, or until the candy thermometer shows a temperature of 108 degree Celsius. 

2. Remove from heat, add in the cream and stir quickly (but carefully) to incorporate well.

3. Cool the caramel sauce to room temperature to use.

ASSEMBLE THE CAKE

Pipe the frosting on the cake in accordance to your liking. The icing tip I used is as above.

With a spoon, drizzle the caramel on the cake, going from one side to the other.

 Arrange the carrot strips as you like.

I decorated the cake with flowers, you can omit this step freely.

SERVE!😊