Carrot Cake with zesty Cream Cheese frosting
Ingredients:
Cake:
400g sugar
Zest of 1 orange
4 eggs
220g avocado oil or olive oil
320g AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp clove
3 cups grated carrot
330g crushed pineapple (1 can, drained)
1 cup walnuts or pecans
½ cup raisins (or shredded unsweetened coconut or more walnuts if preferred)
Frosting:
255g butter
450g powdered sugar
1-1 ¼ tsp salt
40g white chocolate, melted and at room temp
Zest of a whole lemon
2 x 8 oz. packs of cream cheese - cool but not straight out of the fridge
15g milk powder
4-6 tsp lemon juice
Method:
Preheat oven to 330F on convection bake, or 350 regular bake. Grease and line the bottom of two 9” pans.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or with a handheld mixer, measure out sugar and the orange zest and combine till it looks like wet sand. With the whisk attachment fitted, mix eggs and sugar until light and fluffy - 2 mins on medium high. Then stream in the oil on medium to to emulsify. This should be a ribbon consistency, meaning - when the mixture drips off the whisk into the bowl it should ribbon on top slightly before it pools back in.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and clove until well combined.
Add to the wets on low, in two additions. One combined, gently fold in the grated carrot, pineapple, nuts and raisins (if using) with a spatula.
Divide evenly between 2 pans. An easy way to do this is to weigh your stand mixer bowl, or whatever bowl you’re mixing in, empty. Make a note of it. Then once the batter is ready put it on the scale, minus the bowl amount and then divide by however many pans you’re putting the batter into.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and it’s pulling away from the edges of the pan. Let it rest in the pans for 15 minutes, before carefully inverting onto a wire rack to cool fully.
Frosting:
Melt 40g white chocolate and set aside till it’s room temp.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted, or with a handheld mixer, beat together butter, icing sugar and salt together until smooth.
Add in melted white chocolate, lemon zest, lemon juice, milk powder and mix.
Finally, add cream cheese in large chunks. Once it’s come together, taste and adjust accordingly. Then build your cake, and store in the fridge. ENJOY!
