Carrot Cardamom Loaf Cake Recipe Cove Cake Design

Carrot Cardamom Loaf Cake Recipe with Burnt Honey Cream Cheese Icing

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Carrot cardamom loaf cake slice

Carrot Cardamom Loaf Cake

I have always loved carrot cake (I even had it as one tier of our wedding cake!). I tend to nowadays veer towards flavours that are new and interesting but there are times when the classics are called for and comforting. With the global shutdown for coronavirus currently confining us to our homes and lending an air of anxiety to our daily lives, I decided to make a classic carrot loaf cake (with a twist of course!) for an Easter treat.

Carrot Cardamom Loaf Cake

The Recipe

The Carrot Cardamom Cake

The recipe is based on standard carrot loaves, using oil instead of butter and brown sugar for depth of flavour. I used half plain and half wholemeal flour, but all plain flour will work too. I also used a mix of dark soft brown sugar and caster sugar, but for this type of rustic cake I think it is fine to play fast and loose with whatever sugar you have (espeically given the current shopping restrictions too!).  Cinnamon and mixed spice are typical additions to carrot cake, but I chose to add some cardamom too for an extra layer of flavour.

The Burnt Honey Frosting

Burnt honey was something I came across in my browsing of recipes and was a bit of a revelation! If you have a really good honey perhaps with citrus flavour this would work beautifully. I only had a standard honey in my cupboard which is perfectly fine too. The bicarbonate of soda aids in the caramelisation of the honey. The recipe makes extra honey but use this can be kept and used in any recipe or situation you use honey. If you don’t want to make burnt honey a little plain honey or as an alternative some citrus zest would also work well in the icing.

Happy Baking!

Suzanne x

 

Carrot Cardamom Loaf Cake with Burnt Honey Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

Ingredients for the Cake:

  • 150ml rapeseed oil (or other oil), plus extra for greasing
  • 2 free range eggs
  • 100g dark soft brown sugar
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 300g grated carrot
  • 90g plain flour
  • 90g wholemeal flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
  • Pinch salt
  • 1tsp cinnamon
  • 1tsp ground cardamom
  • 1tsp mixed spice

Ingredients for Burnt honey:

  • 120ml honey
  • 1/8 tsp bicarbonate soda
  • 30mls water

For the Cream Cheese Icing :

  • 50g butter
  • 50g icing sugar
  • 180g tub cream cheese
  • 3-4 tbsp burnt honey plus extra for drizzling

Method:

  1. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 160°C/320F.  Grease a loaf tin with some oil and line with baking parchment.
  2. Place the grated carrot, rapeseed oil, eggs and sugars into a large bowl and whisk to combine. .
  3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
  4. Pour the dry ingredients into the carrot mixture and stir well to combine.
  5. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin.
  6. Bake for approx 60mins, until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
  7. Leave the tin to cool for 10mins before turning out onto a wire wrack to cool completely.
  8. To make the burnt honey, heat the honey in a small saucepan over a medium heat until it starts to bubble and turn a darker brown colour. Reduce heat to low and gently add they tiny amount of bicarbonate soda. Be careful as it will bubbble. Stir using a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and add the water, stirring to combine. Set aside to cool.
  9. To make the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar together in a stand mixer. Add the cream cheese and beat again. Finally add burnt honey to taste.
  10. Once the cake is cool, spread with the icing and drizzle extra honey over the top.
  11. As this cake has a cream cheese icing store in the fridge.

 

 

Healthier Chocolate Bundt Cake Cove Cake Design

Healthier Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Recipe with Orange Coconut Cream Ganache

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The Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake

It was my birthday this week (I’m an April fool!), and this year I had time to make cake. We are currently in a global shutdown to combat a coronavirus pandemic and it is an anxious time for everyone I think. We have to live day-by-day and hope that we can overcome it together. In the midst of all the gloom it is important to keep busy and do things you love…and that would include baking!

I chose to make this Chocolate Beetroot Bundt cake from a desire to maintain a nourishing and healthy diet at this time. While no cake is healthy, this one uses honey as a sweetener, rapeseed oil in place of butter and of course has one of your 5-a-day in the form of nutritious beetroot! It is also dairy-free, making it suitable for those with dairy intolerances or dietary preferences.

The Flavours

The recipe is adapted from one by Green Kitchen Stories, who write wonderful vegetarian cookbooks. I have made changes to their Decadent Beetroot Chocolate cake by substituting some flour for wholemeal, adding in ground almonds for added moisture and increasing the chocolate content. I also decided to go all-out (it was my birthday after all!) and add a vegan Chocolate Orange Ganache icing, which really makes the cake! I sometimes pair beetroot with orange in a salad and I think the flavour combination works well here too. I love vegan ganache (perhaps more so than regular ganache actually!), made with coconut cream it is equally as rich as that made with dairy cream but has added flavour. Any leftover could be rolled into delicious vegan truffles.

Healthier Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake

Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake Variations

As shopping and stock availability is not always easy in the current global shutdown, feel free to make variations with whatever you have available. If you don’t have a bundt tin, this recipe would also works well in an 8″ or 9″ round cake tin. I have used a mix of wholemeal and plain flour but if the flour shortage seen in supermarkets here is widespread, feel free to use any flour you have, eg. self-raising (omit the baking powder), or gluten-free or other flour alternatives.  Ground almonds are also a non-essential element. The original recipe calls for 70% dark chocolate but I only had 54.5% available so clearly either will work.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, it is an easy one to make so kids can be roped in too. And perhaps a nice nourishing choice for an Easter treat too!

Happy baking!

Suzanne x

Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake Slice

Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake Recipe with Orange Coconut Cream Ganache

Ingredients for the Cake:

  • 150ml rapeseed oil (olive would work too), plus extra for greasing
  • 120ml honey
  • 75g dark chocolate (70% best but I used 54.5%)
  • 250g grated raw red beetroot
  • 3 free range eggs
  • 1tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • 100g wholemeal plain flour
  • 100g plain flour
  • 25g ground almonds
  • 75g good quality cocoa powder
  • 2tsp baking powder
  • Pinch salt

Ingredients for Ganache:

  • 150g coconut cream (can take cream settled at top of tin of coconut milk or use a small tin coconut cream)
  • 150g 54.5% dark chocolate
  • Grated zest of 1 small orange

For decoration (optional):

  • Whatever you have available! I used dried rose petals, other dried flowers, toasted nuts, sliced fruits etc would also work well.

Method:

  1. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 160°C/320F.  Grease a 20cm bundt pan with oil. I use a silicone bundt mould which is best to avoid sticking. If using a metal one it may be advisable to also sprinkle with flour to avoid sticking. If using a cake tin, grease and line.
  2. Heat the rapeseed oil, honey and dark chocolate together on a low heat in a medium sized pan.
  3. Add the grated beetroot, beaten eggs and vanilla and stir to combine.
  4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Add the ground almonds.
  5. Pour the dry ingredients into the chocolate beetroot mixture and stir well to combine.
  6. Pour the mixture into your chosen cake tin.
  7. Bake for 25-35mins, until the top is cracked and a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
  8. Leave to cool for 10mins before turning out onto a wire wrack to cool completely.
  9. To make the ganache, place the chocolate and coconut cream in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir to melt chocolate. Add the orange zest and stir. Pour over the cooled bundt cake. Decorate as you wish.
  10. Enjoy!

Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake Slice