We are used to the fact that mainly sweet products, berries and fruits are used to make or decorate cakes ... But vegetables and salads remain the main share - all kinds of borscht soups, fries, casseroles, etc. In our article, we propose to break down established stereotypes and make a carrot cake. As practice shows, this baking is not only useful, but also tasty! As for the little picks, for mothers who can’t get their child to swallow at least a little carotene-rich root (not to mention juice or boiled carrots), the carrot cake recipe will be just a find: the peanut will gladly eat the dessert offered, and even ask for supplements. Well, let's get started?
Carrot cake: recipes with photos
First, consider a very simple option, suitable for everyday baking. To make a medium-sized cake, we need:
- carrots (large) - 2 pcs.;
- sugar - 350 g;
- chicken eggs - 2 pcs.;
- premium flour - 320 g;
- cinnamon - 5 g;
- vegetable oil - 60 ml;
- baking powder - 5 g;
- sour cream - 230 g;
- icing sugar - 30 g;
- thickener for cream - 1 sachet;
- raisins, prunes, dried apricots - optional.
As you can see, this recipe for carrot cake does not require special expenses from the hostess and does not take much time. The process itself is so easy that even a schoolgirl can cope with the task.
Rub the peeled and thoroughly washed carrots on a medium grater. Beat eggs with sugar in a separate bowl, pour the resulting mass into a container with carrots and mix. Add cinnamon and vegetable oil, stir well again. We leave the blank for the dough until sugar is completely dissolved. In the meantime, we sift the flour (to make the cake lush and airy, the procedure can be repeated). Next, mix the flour with baking powder and gradually introduce into the carrot mass, kneading the dough with a uniform viscous consistency. If desired, crushed dried fruits can be added. Grease the form with vegetable oil or margarine, heat, pour the dough into it and send the future pie to the oven for 40 minutes. Bake should be at a temperature of 180 ° C, and so that the cake does not fall, it is not recommended to open the oven for the first 20 minutes. Readiness check with a toothpick or skewer. Ready cake must be cooled.
In principle, the pie is ready to eat, especially if you added raisins, dried apricots or prunes to the dough. In this case, the cake can be simply sprinkled with powdered sugar on top. If you want a cake, it is recommended to cut the pastries into several shortcakes and grease with sour cream. It is very simple to prepare it: beat sour cream (necessarily fatty, preferably homemade) with powdered sugar and add a
thickener for cream. We smear it with cakes (by the way, you need to cover the lower cakes with a thick layer of cream so that the cake is well saturated and juicy), form a cake and decorate it with the remaining cream, fruits and nuts on top. Dessert is recommended to withstand the night in the refrigerator.
The original recipe for carrot cake with nuts
But this cake is quite interesting: along with sweet dough, salted nuts are used. Yes, do not be surprised! An unusual combination, but the result is simply amazing!
So we need:
- carrots - 3 pcs.;
- eggs - 4 pcs.;
- flour - 1.5 tbsp .;
- sugar - 350 g;
- vegetable oil - an incomplete glass;
- baking powder (soda) - 10 g;
- cinnamon - 5 g;
- orange peel;
- orange juice - (from 1 fruit);
- walnut –230 g;
- salt - 3 g;
- butter - 40 g.
Cream:
- icing sugar - 250 g;
- butter - 75 g;
- Mascarpone cheese - 260 g;
- Philadelphia cheese - 200 g.
First, prepare the nuts. Take the walnuts. They need to be dried in the oven (or in a pan) until a characteristic aroma of roasted nuts appears. Then it is advisable to peel the kernels off - as much as possible - and sprinkle with salt. When the nuts have cooled, they need to be detailed using a rolling pin or with a sharp knife. Now we start preparing the dough.
Take 2 containers: in one we mix bulk products, and in the second - everything else. So, in a deep bowl we combine the sifted flour, baking powder, sugar (in fact, the carrot cake recipe considered involves the use of brown sugar, which gives the product a light caramel flavor, but for lack of it you can take ordinary granulated sugar), zest (can be cut into small pieces or grate) and cinnamon. Beat eggs separately, add well-softened, but not ghee, and orange juice. Washed carrots must be grated on a fine grater or chopped using a food processor, blender, etc. We need about 400 g of product. Gently mix the contents of both containers, pour the main component there, that is, carrots, and salted nuts. Carefully knead the mass until a homogeneous consistency.
Now this moment: the dough can be poured into one deep form, and then cut the resulting cake into 3 parts. But it’s more convenient to use special paper molds (large) for baking muffins - the cakes are then the same, and when cut, the product looks much more beautiful. If there are no such molds, you can bake a cake in three sets. The optimum temperature in the oven is 180 ° C. The baking time depends on the form: a deep container and a lot of dough - we note 45 minutes, three cakes - which means we reduce the time to 25 minutes. Readiness check dry wooden skewer or toothpick. The first time (approximately 15 minutes) we do not open the oven! Ready cakes must be cooled, you can even hold it a little in the refrigerator.
In the meantime, the cakes are baked, let's take a cream. Well-softened butter (namely butter, in no case a spread or margarine!) Beat with a whisk to a lush, airy mass. Why not a mixer? Very simple: so that the cream retains a uniform structure. The fact is that with prolonged whipping, oil can be taken in grains, then all the work is worthless. Add a little cheese (preheat both products to room temperature), lastly, powdered sugar (to taste). All this time, the cream does not stop whipping.
Lubricate the cooled cakes layer by layer with cream, collect the cake and coat it with all the remaining sweet-salty mass. We decorate the dessert with nut crumbs and put in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
We looked at how to make a sweet and sweet-salty dessert. In fact, the recipe for carrot cake has many variations. As a layer, you can use everything that is in the house: from jams to condensed milk. In any case, the cake will turn out to be surprisingly delicate and delicious. Enjoy your meal!