I have concocted a moist and delicious carrot cake, it's spiced with cinnamon and cardamom and it's filled and topped with mascarpone icing. I've tried to make it similar to my Mum's Greek (wheat flour) walnut cake, minus the wheat. One thing that makes Mum's so special is the texture, the large pieces of walnuts add a really nice crunch, so I really recommend buying whole walnuts and cracking them yourself. I bought some nice whole Australian walnuts, they're much better than the overseas product found in most supermarkets, which are packed in plastic and crushed into tiny pieces. Walnuts are in season now, so check out your local farmers market. You need texture for this one!
CARROT APPLE WALNUT CAKE WITH MASCARPONE ICING (GLUTEN FREE)
Serves 10-12
Gluten Free
Ingredients
For the cake
- 5 free range eggs
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 1/3 cup carrot, grated
- 1 cup apple, grated
- 1 cup or 80 g walnuts, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp gluten free baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 250 g almond meal
- Pinch of salt
For the mascarpone icing
- 1 cup cream
- 1/3 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
- 250 g mascarpone cheese
- Zest of 1 orange
Method
Pre-heat oven to 160 °C.
Oil a 22 cm spring-form cake tin and line with baking paper.
In a bowl beat eggs and sugar with a hand blender. Add all remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix with a spoon until combined. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes, until golden on top, and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake and comes out clean.
Remove cake from oven. When it's cool enough to handle take the cake out of the tin, remove lining, and place on the wire rack to completely cool.
For the icing, beat the cream and sugar until almost stiff peak stage, add mascarpone and zest and beat on a lower speed to combine.
To assemble. When the cake is completely cool, slice in half, making sure more of the bottom is left so there is less weight on the cream. Spoon on the cream and smooth out until it almost touches the edges. Pop the top back on and smooth over the remaining icing.
Serve. Devour.