Ottolenghi’s amazing carrot and walnut cake

If you think you don’t like carrot cake, you must try this recipe before you give up on it! This one is fruit free, not overly spiced, and extremely light and moist! I couldn’t recommend this recipe more highly.

carrot cake 3

Here’s the recipe, I omitted the ground cloves as I didn’t have any and didn’t miss it to be honest.

Ingredients (Serves at least 6-8)

160g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 large free range egg
1 free range egg yolk
200g sunflower oil
270g caster sugar
50g walnuts, chopped
50g desiccated coconut
135g carrot, grated
2 free range egg whites
a pinch of salt

Icing

175g cream cheese (at room temperature)
70g soft unsalted butter
35g icing sugar
25g honey
30g walnuts, chopped and lightly toasted

carrot cake 2

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a 20cm spring-form cake tin (I only have a 24cm sized tin and this worked fine) and line base and sides with baking paper
  2. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda and spices together
  3. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the egg with the egg yolk
  4. Put the sunflower oil and caster sugar in a large bowl and whisk for about a minute on a medium speed. On a low speed, slowly add the beaten egg. Mix in the walnuts, coconut and carrot and then the sifted dry ingredients. Don’t over mix!
  5. In a clean bowl, and using a clean whisk/mixer, whisk the egg whites on a high speed with a pinch of salt until firm peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites to the cake mixture in 3 additions, be careful not to over mix. White streaks in the mixture are okay
  6. Pour the cake mixture into the cake tin and bake for approx 1 hour; although it could take longer. A skewer inserted should come out dry. Cover the cake with foil if the top starts to brown before it is cooked through. Let the cake cool completely before removing from the tin
  7. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese until light and smooth. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, icing sugar and honey until light and airy. Fold together the cream cheese and butter mixture. Spread over top of cake and sprinkle/decorate with chopped walnuts.

Carrot cake 1

All in all, this is another winner from Ottolenghi! I was very pleased with the results and the cake proved very popular with all who tasted it. My only niggle is that the walnuts in the cake had gone almost black, but I guess this is what happens to the skins during the baking process. It doesn’t affect the taste at all.

About Lisa C

Lisa is very much the culinary brains behind LondonPiggy. She grew up in north London and her love of food is matched by her passion for travel. She's already visited every continent, with the exception of Antarctica. C She's currently working on an exciting new project, visit Parmstar.uk

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