Anyone who has never heard of a carrot cake will not express any desire to try it, because the stereotypical association: carrots is a vegetable, therefore they offer a vegetable pie - will control perception. In fact, a velvet carrot cake with Cheese cream is a sweet dessert that does not differ in basic taste indicators from butter biscuit, Honey cake and other usual sweets.
A few words about the dish
According to the standard assessment of vegetables, carrots have a sweet taste, such as pumpkin or green peas. Why not make a cake out of it? The main ingredient is rubbed on a fine grater, so it does not distort the texture of the dough familiar to everyone, but gives it an original orange hue. If you combine the cakes of carrot cake with Cheese cream, flavored with orange, you can get a cake so elegant in taste that none of the tasting ones will guess that it is a secret ingredient. The energy value of 100 grams of this dessert is 287 calories, which is relatively small for a treat of this kind. Therefore, it can be for those who can not imagine life without sweets, but do not want to gain weight.
Traditional set of ingredients
To prepare a carrot cake with Cheese cream, a prescription must be taken:
- 550 grams of fresh carrots;
- three eggs;
- 170 grams of any nuts; only walnuts or a mixture of almonds, cashews and peanuts can be used.
- 200 grams of granulated sugar;
- zest of one orange;
- 300 grams of flour;
- 1 \ 4 tsp nutmeg and as much cinnamon;
- 1.5 tsp baking powder for dough;
- 170 grams of odorless vegetable oil.
Buying Cheese cream for carrot cake is very expensive, but it is easy to make it yourself. To do this, you need to take only three components: 500 grams of cream cheese, 120-130 grams of fat cream and 110 grams of powdered sugar. You will also need a ripe orange to flavor the cream. You should consider the issue of decorating the finished product: icing, fresh berries or just pieces of dark chocolate.
Cooking dough
The dough for a carrot cake with Cheese cream is prepared as simple as possible: first you need to lightly fry the nuts in a dry frying pan and grind to a state of fine crumbs (not powder). Combine them with spices and grated zest. Add flour with baking powder and mix well. Grind carrots with small holes and squeeze gently with your hands, removing excess liquid (juice can be used to make a drink). Then beat eggs with sugar, as is usually done to make a biscuit (the mass should turn white). Continuing to whisk at low speeds, add oil, and after thorough mixing, add a little nut mixture. At the very end, add carrots and mix well with a spoon.
Bakery products
If you have a large baking sheet, you can bake one wide layer. The height of the cake should not exceed 3 cm, otherwise the dough is poorly baked. If the forms are small, it is recommended to divide the dough into two equal parts. The product should be baked in the oven at a temperature of 170-180 degrees until ready, which is determined by piercing the cake with a wooden stick closer to the middle.
Typically, baking takes no more than 50 minutes, but this figure depends on the thickness of the cake and the power of the oven. When it comes to condition, put it on a flat plate, wrap it in polyethylene and send it to a cool place for 5-6 hours (you can overnight). This action will give the carrot biscuit the necessary softness. So, it will not disintegrate into dry pieces during slicing. After all the preparatory steps are done, you can prepare the Cheese cream for carrot cake.
Cooking cream
Some confectioners additionally soak the cakes with syrup before starting to spread the cream. Whoever likes this option, you can use regular syrup to soak a classic biscuit. To do this, bring to a boil one hundred grams of water mixed with the same amount of sugar. When the syrup is removed from the fire, add two tbsp. l brandy or rum (you can replace a couple of drops of orange essence if alcohol is unacceptable).
To prepare the Cheese orange cream for carrot cake, you need to whip the cream with powdered sugar into a lush foam, at the end, combine with cream cheese. Then remove the zest from the orange, squeeze the juice and mix everything into the cream. It must be used immediately, since Cheese cream has a short shelf life. Brush the cream soaked with cakes, cover it with leftovers and the top of the cake. If desired, you need to decorate the product with orange slices or large chocolate chips.
A dessert decorated with blueberries also looks very impressive: a carrot cake with Cheese cream in this form can take the place of honor of a festive dish on an anniversary or birthday.
Cake with an orange layer
Often this cake is prepared not just with creamy orange cream, but a layer of the same fruit is added. Sometimes it’s confit or thickly boiled confiture, sometimes Kurd (a specific cream based on starch) or just marmalade. An example is a step-by-step recipe for orange confit, which is easiest to prepare:
- Mix 300 grams of orange and zest with 1/2 fruit and heat in a saucepan over low heat for three minutes, after mixing with 60 grams of sugar.
- Add to the mass of 8-10 grams of pectin, mix well and pour it into a silicone mold so that the finished confit layer has a height of not more than 1.5 cm. Cool until completely solidified.
A carrot cake with an orange layer is formed as follows: the soaked cake is covered with cream, then pieces of confit, cut with a knife, are laid out on it (they should be slightly drowned in cream). Top - a second layer of carrot biscuit, cream with orange slices and one more crust. Coat everything with cream, let the cake cool in the refrigerator for half an hour, and then decorate with thick chocolate icing. It can fill the entire surface of the cake or just make a border around the edge, forming beautiful smudges from the chocolate mass.
Everyone who has tried carrot cake according to this recipe is surprised to note that they would never have guessed about its basic ingredient. Every year, a soft, juicy, incredibly fragrant dessert wins the hearts of an increasing number of lovers of unconventional pastries.