I decided to take a few of the very few recipe on my very old blog and post them there, today a good old Swiss classic : the carrot cake. As I mentioned in the recipe, this is a pretty basic, in fact most cakes and cupcakes as I know them are made on the “4 quarter principle” with equal weight of eggs, flour, butter and sugar. I found a few recipe in magazines around here but each time I tried these they miserably failed because the ratio were messed up somehow. Trust me guys apply this golden rule of basic baking I give you and you will never fail. Then you add your flavours to the basic mix, be it a hand full of nuts and fruits, carrots, or pure cocoa powder.
Also the recipe I give you below was the nut free one, my grand ma’s recipe calls for ground hazelnuts, which are though to find in India and when you find it, expensive, but later found that ground almonds make a good substitute, so if you want to follow that route, just substitute about 60g of flour for 60g of ground almonds.
For 1 standard cake tin you'll need :
3-4 eggs
Weight of the eggs in shell of all purpose flour, sugar, butter
150-200 grams grated carrots
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2-3 teaspoon baking powder
The zest of a small lime
1/2 teaspoon orange essence (optional)
1 pinch of salt
How to 1) in a plastic microwave safe mixing bowl place the butter and microwave for 10 second at a time until it can be mashed by a fork and is soft enough to beat to a paste
2) Add the sugar and the pinch of salt to the butter, stir until well blended
3) Add the eggs one at a time will stirring and blending to the sugar/butter mix
4) Add the carrot to the mix and stir, add the cinnamon, and lime zest as well as the orange essence if used.
5) Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the buttery batter, mix until all the ingredients are well blended. The batter should be thick put of pouring consistency, if it appear to be a bit too thick, you can add a little milk to it.
6)Preheat oven at 180 C , Grease a cake tin with butter and dust with flour, pour the batter in it smoothening it so it fills it evenly up to 2/3 the height of the tin
7) bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the cake is done to the middle, check by pricking the cake with a clean knife blade to its center, if the blade comes out clean the cake is done. If after 20 minutes you notice the cake is too brown but the middle is not cook, reduce the temperature of the oven to 150 and continue cooking until done.
8) Remove from oven and let it cool in the tin for 7-10 minutes, then de-mould and transfer the cake to a wire rack for complete cooling.
Serve as a desert, or with tea, you can ice it with icing sugar as well and turn it into a birthday cake.
Also the recipe I give you below was the nut free one, my grand ma’s recipe calls for ground hazelnuts, which are though to find in India and when you find it, expensive, but later found that ground almonds make a good substitute, so if you want to follow that route, just substitute about 60g of flour for 60g of ground almonds.
Carrot Cake
A tea time classic sponge cake and a favourite in my home country Switzerland. Like most sponge cakes this one is made on what we call "4 quarter base" in my family, meaning that the ingredients are measured as per the weight of the eggs still in their shell. Therefore if you use 3 eggs that weight around 200 grams you will have to add the same amount of flour, sugar, and butter to the mix and then add the flavouring agent of your choice to it in the required quantity (this later varies).For 1 standard cake tin you'll need :
3-4 eggs
Weight of the eggs in shell of all purpose flour, sugar, butter
150-200 grams grated carrots
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2-3 teaspoon baking powder
The zest of a small lime
1/2 teaspoon orange essence (optional)
1 pinch of salt
How to 1) in a plastic microwave safe mixing bowl place the butter and microwave for 10 second at a time until it can be mashed by a fork and is soft enough to beat to a paste
2) Add the sugar and the pinch of salt to the butter, stir until well blended
3) Add the eggs one at a time will stirring and blending to the sugar/butter mix
4) Add the carrot to the mix and stir, add the cinnamon, and lime zest as well as the orange essence if used.
5) Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the buttery batter, mix until all the ingredients are well blended. The batter should be thick put of pouring consistency, if it appear to be a bit too thick, you can add a little milk to it.
6)Preheat oven at 180 C , Grease a cake tin with butter and dust with flour, pour the batter in it smoothening it so it fills it evenly up to 2/3 the height of the tin
7) bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the cake is done to the middle, check by pricking the cake with a clean knife blade to its center, if the blade comes out clean the cake is done. If after 20 minutes you notice the cake is too brown but the middle is not cook, reduce the temperature of the oven to 150 and continue cooking until done.
8) Remove from oven and let it cool in the tin for 7-10 minutes, then de-mould and transfer the cake to a wire rack for complete cooling.
Serve as a desert, or with tea, you can ice it with icing sugar as well and turn it into a birthday cake.
