The Not-so-Humble Carrot: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

It’s finally sunny and warm today and my thoughts turn to gardening and outdoor pursuits. A few years ago I planted tomatoes on the windowsill in January and watched them not grow for a few months, so I resist the temptation to do the same this February. But at least I can think about planting something, can’t I?

How about carrots? Carrots are brilliant. Not just in colour, but in nutritional value, taste and in their multitude of uses. I even had carrot flowers in my wedding bouquet! Carrots are relatively easy to grow on the condition that the soil is soft and sandy, which mine isn’t. They are most often cooked in a savoury manner, but they are the prime example of using a vegetable as the main ingredient in a sweet dish: the classic carrot cake.

Carrot cake is one of my favourites and I have made dozens of them in recent years using a traditional stand mixer but I had yet to make one with my trusty Thermomix. I have heard from other Thermomix owners and seen on the web that you can make the carrot cake batter in less than a minute (yes, less than a minute!) in the Thermomix so after watching so many pieces of carrot cake being served at The Courtauld Gallery Café I grabbed some crisp orange roots, threw them into my Thermomix for a few seconds, added the other ingredients and popped the batter into the oven.

It really was as amazingly simple as I was told, and the result is moist, dark and flavourful without being heavy or overly rich. Even my husband, who doesn’t particularly affection cakes, found it rich and moist and tasty.

The recipe illustrates the classic difference between cakes made in America and cakes made in England. I bet you didn’t even know there was a difference, did you? Well, there is a difference, and a major one. In the UK it seems to be traditional to only ice the top of a cake, whilst in America we traditionally ice both the top and the sides of the cake. My faithful Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book taught me that icing the sides as well as the top locked in the moisture and made the cake last longer. The Cream Cheese Icing recipe below makes enough to ice the top, but I would prefer a thicker layer all around. When I make it again I shall divide the batter between two tins and double the amount of icing to go between the layers for a nice thick layer on the top and sides.

Yes, Dear Reader, the Thermomix Carrot Cake is so good, so fast and easy, that I will definitely be making it again.

Carrot Cake
Recipe by Janie Turner and Sam Joffe in “Fast and Easy Cooking,” the 300-recipe cookery book included with the purchase of every Thermomix TM31 in the UK. Serves 8 to 12.

Preheat the oven to 180° C/350° F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line one deep 20 cm/8 inch diameter cake tin or two shallow 8-inch/20 cm cake tins.

Ingredients
300 g carrots, peeled if not organic and cut in chunks
3 eggs
350 g soft brown sugar
50 g sour cream or crème fraiche
160 g sunflower oil or 80 g sunflower oil and 80 g yoghurt
250 g plain wholemeal flour
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt

Method

1. Weigh the carrot chunks into the TM bowl. Chop 6 seconds/Speed 4 while stirring anti-clockwise with the spatula through the hole in the TM lid.
2. Add all the other ingredients and mix 20 seconds/Speed 5 until you have a smooth cake batter.
3. Scrape down the sides of the TM bowl with the spatula. Mix a few seconds/Speed 5. Pour the batter into a deep 20 cm diameter cake tin or into two shallow 8-inch tins which have been buttered and lined with baking paper.
4. Bake 1 to 1 ¼ hours at 180° C/350° F/Gas mark 4 until the cake springs back when pressed with a fingertip. Reduce baking time for two shallow tins. Cool on a cooling rack until completely cool then remove from tin and ice if desired.

Fast and Easy Cream Cheese Icing
The orange in this icing perfectly complements the carrot cake. Delicious!
Makes enough to ice the top of an 8-inch diameter cake.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 large unwaxed orange, thin peelings of skin only
300 g cream cheese
15 to 30 g runny honey

Method

1. Grind sugar at Speed 10 and quickly drop the orange peelings onto the running blades to finely mince them into the sugar.
2. Add the cream cheese and honey. Mix 20 seconds/Speed 3. Scrape down the sides of the TM bowl with the spatula and mix again a few seconds/Speed 3.
3. Insert the Butterfly Whisk and whisk 30 seconds/Speed 2 until you have a smooth icing. Ice your cake when it is completely cool.

NEW! Print this recipe

Bon appétit !

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