Carrot Cake with Mascarpone Icing

April 8, 2019

Carrot Cake with Mascarpone Icing

Below you can also find another variation for the icing made from cream cheese and scented with orange zest.

For the cake:

  • 180-200 g of grated carrots
  • 200-230 g of sugar (I like to use demerara sugar for this cake)
  • 3 eggs
  • 220-230 ml of sunflower oil
  • 230 g of plain flour, sifted
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons of powdered cinnamon or more to taste
  • 130 g of coarsely chopped walnuts and pistachios or almonds (you can use walnuts only)
  • 1 apple, peeled and grated or use the same amount of grated pineapple instead

For the mascarpone icing:

  • 150 g of soft butter
  • 250 g of mascarpone
  • 350 g of icing sugar
  • grated zest of one large lemon, or use two small lemons instead

Cream cheese and orange icing:

  • 500 g of cream cheese type Philadelphia (full fat)
  • 4 tablespoons of icing sugar
  • grated zest from half an orange

In a large bowl mix the eggs with the sugar (you can use an electric mixer).

Now start adding the oil stirring everything all the time.

Next combine the mixture with the flour. Make sure there are no lumps.

Add the cinnamon and baking powder and gently stir the mixture. Now add to the bowl the coarsely chopped nuts, the grated carrots and the apple. Stir well.

Grease with butter and line with baking parchment a 24 cm in diameter spring cake form tin.

Pour the cake dough into the form and bake in the preheated oven to 160 C (150 C if fan assisted oven) for about 1 hour, until the middle of the cake is cooked (it should be dry inside if you check it with a skewer).

While the cake is in the oven, make the icing.

In a bowl start mixing with a wooden spoon the butter with the sugar, adding it gradually and making sure that there are no lumps.

After that mix in the mascarpone and lemon zest until you obtain a creamy and smooth consistency. Cover the bowl and leave in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

For the cream cheese icing.

In a bowl work together the cream cheese with the icing sugar. You should obtain a well combined mixture with no lumps very easily. Add grated orange zest and taste. Add more sugar if you prefer.

Leave in the fridge until needed.

Once the cake is baked leave it to cool down completely.

Take out the icing from the fridge and let it warm up for about 5 minutes.

After that cut the carrot cake horizontally in half and spread some of the icing on one of the cake rings. Even out the surface and cover with the second cake ring.

Use the remaining icing to decorated the cake all over.

When choosing the cream cheese icing I like to just evenly spread it over the cake.

To decorate you can use some more walnuts and pistachios, orange zest or even pumpkin seeds.