Simnel-spiced carrot cake
Kate Doran's glorious carrot cake recipe is laced with flavours of the traditional Simnel cake, offering a great alternative Easter cake idea. The cake is smothered in a luxurious almond cream cheese frosting for a wonderfully decadent finish.
With Easter just around the corner, it’s time to turn thoughts to how to feed a crowd of family or friends over the long weekend. While Simnel cake topped with twelve marzipan balls to represent the apostles is traditional festive fare, this year I’m keeping the Easter bunny sweet (and hopefully generous with the chocolate supplies) by baking this beautifully simple carrot cake inspired by the same flavours.
Adding orange juice-soaked sultanas and ground almonds to the batter makes this little loaf cake moist and delicious, with crunch from the walnuts and flaked almonds and a rich cream cheese icing on top. For a dairy-free version, replace the icing with sweetened whipped coconut cream or serve with a dollop of coconut yoghurt on the side.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
Simnel-spiced carrot cake
- 50g of sultanas
- 1/2 orange, zested and juiced
- 150g of self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 pinch of ground cloves
- 1 pinch of ground nutmeg
- 50g of ground almonds
- 50g of walnut halves, roughly chopped
- 120ml of sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
- 135g of soft brown sugar, light
- 2 large eggs
- 225g of carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
Almond cream cheese frosting
- 200g of mascarpone
- 2 tbsp of icing sugar, sifted
- 1/2 orange, zested
- almond extract, a few drops
- 2 tbsp of flaked almonds, toasted
Method
Get in touch
Please sign in or register to send a comment to Great British Chefs.
You may also like
SITES
