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Monday, October 14, 2013

Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing

Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing
This cake. It pains me a little to look at the photos of this cake. At the same time it makes me a little glad that I took photos of this cake before it met its doom. If you follow me on instagram or facebook then you will already know that about 2 hours after I took these photos this cake was lying upside down IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. It was quickly followed by my high pitched shriek of horror while having flashbacks to the time I dropped a 7-layer trifle on my carpet. I don't even know how it happened. I'm never trusting cake carrier containers ever again.
Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing
The funny thing was, I wasn't completely happy with how I decorated the top of the cake anyway. I changed my mind several times while making it and the final result wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. But it was good enough. I guess it just wasn't meant to be? Anyway, with a car rushing towards the doomed cake, we scooped it up (surprisingly intact except for the completely smushed top layer) and dumped it back on the cake carrier and ran. Oh and did I mention this cake was for my Mum's birthday?
Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing
My family were highly amused when they saw the roadkill cake. Luckily for me the cake seemed to fall straight on its face without touching anywhere else so I was able to do a quick salvage operation and chop off the top, flip the cake over and dust it with loads of icing sugar. It still wasn't the same, I think the fall made the whole cake deflate a little so it was a lot shorter than it looks in these photos.
Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing
But in the end it tasted pretty amazing (and not at all gravelly as far as I could tell). This is actually the first time I've baked a carrot cake, I usually avoid it since the recipe always contains walnuts and I'm allergic to them. I skipped the walnuts this time but I think the crunch of nuts was definitely missed. Next time I might try using pumpkin seeds or pine nuts to add that extra texture. The cake recipe was adapted from Bourke St Bakery's recipe, it's a really interesting recipe that is almost like a sponge cake. Instead of making one tall cake I split the mixture between my three cake tins (I'm so glad I did that, if I had dropped a 1 layer cake it wouldn't have been salvagable). It meant that there was a nice amount of icing with each mouthful of cake. And since I know my Mum doesn't like her cakes too sweet, I replaced the normal cream cheese icing with a very light and fluffy mascarpone and cream icing flavoured with ginger and lemon. It was zesty and light and definitely not too sweet. I couldn't get a shot of a cake slide since it was a birthday cake but there is a dodgy iphone shot of the innards below. The most important thing is that Mum enjoyed it, though she is making a case for a second birthday cake since her first one ended up on the ground. Happy Birthday Mum!!!
Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing
Carrot Layer Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing
(carrot cake adapted from Lisa's version of the Bourke St Bakery Carrot Cake, icing adapted from Martha Stewart)
For the carrot cake:
70g walnuts (I'm allergic so I skipped this, you could substitute with pine nuts or pumpkin seeds if you still want the crunch)
150g (about 1 cup plus 2 tbsp) self-raising flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking (bi-carb) soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg whites
60g (about 1/4 cup) caster (superfine) sugar (for eggwhites)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
160g (about 2/3 cup) caster (superfine) sugar (for egg yolks)
170ml (about 3/4 cup) extra light olive oil
125g (4.4 oz, about 2-3 carrots) of peeled and grated carrots

Grease well and line the base and sides of three 18cm (7inch) round cake tins, or two 20cm (8inch) tins.  Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F) (or 180°C (350°F) fan-forced). Place the walnuts on a baking tray and cook for 4-5 minutes or until lightly roasted. Cool and cut into thirds. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt into a bowl. Repeat to ensure they are evenly mixed. Put the egg whites in a large clean bowl. Whisk egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks start to form. Slowly add 60g of sugar while whisking and continue mixing until soft peaks form. Transfer the meringue to another bowl and set aside until needed.

Placethe egg and egg yolk in the large mixing bowl and add the sugar for egg yolks. Mix on high speed with an electric mixer for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture doubles in volume and is quite airy. With the mixer still on, slowly pour the oil in a thin stream being careful that it doesn’t split or deflate too much. Remove the bowl from the mixer and with a spatula, gently fold in the flour mixture until combined. Fold in the carrots and walnuts. Working quickly, lightly fold in the meringue, but do not fold in completely. You should still be able to see some white streaks through the mixture. Pour equal amounts of the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the surface of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. If using two or one tin instead of three you should increase your baking time accordingly. Cool in tin for 5 minutes then carefully remove and cool completely on a wire rack.
Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing
For the icing:
340g (12oz) mascarpone cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup (about 100g) icing (confectioners') sugar, sifted
1 tbsp powdered ginger, can be adjusted to taste
Zest of 1 lemon + 2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups (about 360ml) thickened (heavy) cream

Place mascarpone, icing sugar, powdered ginger and lemon zest and juice in a large mixing bowl and whisk together with a hand whisk until smooth. In a separate clean mixing bowl, whisk cream until soft peaks form. Take care not to overwhip. Fold cream into mascarpone mixture until smooth then place in a piping bag with a 1cm round tip. 

To assemble; place one layer of cake on your cake stand or plate. Pipe rounds of icing just inside the edge of the top of the cake if you want to create the scalloped effect, then fill in the rest of the top of the cake. Cover with another layer of cake and repeat. For the top of the cake I spread a thin layer of icing using a spatula and then repeated the piped rounds around the edge of the cake and topped with soft silver cachous and a dusting of icing sugar. Alternatively you can just dust with icing sugar or top with a smooth layer of icing and more toasted walnuts. Keep chilled in the fridge until ready to serve.
Carrot Cake with Lemon Ginger Mascarpone Icing

25 comments:

  1. At least the cake was salvaged! You should post a photo up of what you made it look like in the end and I bet we wouldn't even be able to tell what happened - still perfect looking! Happy birthday to mumma raspberricupcakes hehe hope she had a fab day!

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  2. Dropping a birthday cake is the ultimate nightmare, really! Good on you for keeping your head, and for salvaging it in the end - now you have a great story to tell.

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  3. It came out lovely for the photos. It's great that you were able to eat it after all. I love mascarpone cheese, and I especially love carrot cake. Happy birthday to your mum!

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  4. Ermagherd I am torn between horror and laughter at your cake roadkill tragedy! Pesky cake carriers! I bet it still tasted just fine. The mascarpone icing sounds glorious.

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  5. So glad you managed to salvage it! It looks great and I really do love Bourke St Bakery's carrot cake recipe. Hope your mum enjoyed it!

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  6. awww! what a shame! ><" That's happened to me before though... so disappointing after all that effort! but looks great :) and im sure it tasted great too :D

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  7. Definitely a happier story than when friends of mine drove off without realising they'd left a cream-covered birthday cake in its box on top of their car. A hundred metres or so down the road they heard a plonk and horror crept in when they remembered what it was!.

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  8. Me too! On Sunday I had a sour cream chocolate cake (smittenkitchen chocolate peanut butter cake recipe) break when I was idiotically passing it between assembly plate and cooling rack and flipping it over. I flipped it over, pressed some broken chunks together and covered it in coffee buttercream. If anyone near you requests a coffee cake, please post about it!

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  9. Aww. What a shame about your cake especially since it was your mums birthday. The cake looks lovely and I love using mascarpone instead of cream cheese.

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  10. Dropping a cake is so horrible, I'm glad you managed to salvage it! It looks beautiful in these photos and I'm sure it tasted amazing too. I love the idea of a lemon ginger mascarpone icing!

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  11. This is so gorgeous! I love the way you frosted it!

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  12. That looks amazing! On dropping the cake that reminded me Carrie Bradshaw dropped her 35th Birthday Cake in the street on the way home from a party her friends didn't come to. :(

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  13. Oh my god, I cannot believe what happened! At least the thought was there and you managed to save some, it looks so yummy.

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  14. wow I really love the scalloped effect of the frosting between layers.. will try that next time, beautiful cake!!!

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  15. The cakes looks amazing. I love carrot cake. I discovered it 2 or 3 years ago, and I bake it every year.
    And I know how you felt when the cake felt down. It happened also to me...but mine could not be saved anymore. And it was also a birthday cake. Since then I hold the cake carrier container as it would be my baby :)

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  16. That's devastating! I'm glad you were able to salvage and eat it though, carrot cake is one of my favourites! I usually swap out walnuts for other nuts like pistachios or cashews, just because I like them better.

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  17. Despite its rather unfortunate incident I think the cake looks wonderful. I'd probably argue for a second one too if I were your mum. Any excuse for cake!

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  19. It's awesome that you can make light of the situation, what a nightmare!
    That icing so sounds amazing though, I'd probably be tempted to eat it off the road...

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  20. Carrot cake is my favorite!

    xo Jennifer

    http://seekingstyleblog.wordpress.com

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  21. Oh my god, what a disaster! Lucky you were able to salvage some of it at least!

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  22. I love the way you frosted the cake actually, this cake has been on my mind. Just wondering what difference would it make if I used all mascarpone cheese without the heavy cream? Would it make the frosting heavier and less like a whipped cream?

    DT

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    Replies
    1. Yes it would make it a love heavier and richer, the cream is there to lighten it and make it nice and fluffy. If you decide to use all macarpone (though I wouldn't recommend it) I would consider adding a lot more lemon to balance out the richness.

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  23. Thanks for your reply. As mascarpone is not as common, i used cream cheese + butter instead. I added more lemon zest as you advised, and i loved the flavour which goes very well with carrot cakes. :)

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  24. I absolutely LOVE how you decorated this cake! It's gorgeous, and looks so light and fluffy!

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