Carrot Cake Tiramisu
Next something a bit different, maybe a bit less Christmassy then the other bakes on this list. Carrot Cake Tiramisu, with added ginger for a Christmas kick makes this recipe a fantastic addition to this list. Other carrot cake recipes suggest a cream cheese frosting. Even though this recipe doesn’t need it, I’ve taken some liberties with this normal topping, combining it with a Tiramisu recipe that will leave you wanting more. With three of your five a day this recipe is surprisingly healthy, relatively. I do want to warn you though, this recipe does take a while. Grating all this carrot can certainly be repetitive, just like that one Christmas song you’ve heard maybe one too many times. If you’ve heard a song enough to know all the lyrics then it’s time to change things up, the same with recipes like this. This recipe makes you put in the work but it is certainly worth it in the end. Just like for many things perseverance leads to success, and sometimes to a delicious bake. The optional alcoholic kick certainly makes a difference as well, there is no better way to unwind.
Ingredients:
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1 Orange
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140g Raisin
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280g Finely grated carrot (400g of carrot before peeling)
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115g plain flour
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115g self-raising flour
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2 tsp Baking powder
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1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
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1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
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1 tsp Ground ginger
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2 eggs
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140g Dark muscovado sugar (any brown sugar works best, caster sugar works)
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125ml Olive oil (Rapeseed oil or Vegetable/sunflower oil also works)
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1 espresso coffee (or 50ml very strong coffee)
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2 more eggs (I know a bit eggs-treme if you ask me)
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50g caster sugar
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250g tub (½ tub) mascarpone
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50ml Irish cream liqueur, optional
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100g dark chocolate chips(or grated chocolate)
Equipment:
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1 small bowl
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2 medium bowls
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1 large bowl
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2 measuring jugs
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A spatula
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tsp measure
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Electric whisk
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Baking tin (deep)
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Baking parchment (baking paper)
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Zester
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Grater
Method:
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Zest your orange into a small bowl. Cut your Orange in half and squeeze all the juice into the zest. Measure out the raisin into this bowl, mix slightly, then leave to one side while you do everything else.
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Set your oven to 160C/ fan 140C/ gas 3. I know this is low. But this recipe takes 1 hour in the oven so it needs to be this low so it cooks correctly and doesn’t burn.
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Now comes the longest part, grating the carrots. Take your carrots and peel them, leave a small amount of peel at the top (largest side) of each carrot. Cut a small amount of the bottom of the carrot off. This helps with grating.
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Grate this into a medium sized bowl. As the carrot gets grated move your hand out of the way of the grater toward the top of the carrot. When you reach the small part of peel you left at the top, stop grating this carrot and discard the rest. This prevents you accidentally grateing your fingers. If the grater is very slippery or if you are distracted it is easy to grate your fingers. This helps you identify (slightly early) when to stop. If you accidentally cut your fingers. Stop cooking immediately and get cleaned up. Either apply a blue plaster (or weirdly coloured plaster so you can see it) and discard the bowl of grated carrot, it is contaminated. Or if you can’t find a plaster, stop immediately. You are done baking for the day (or until the cut is healed/ you have a plaster.) Later in the recipe, look through all the mixtures. If you find your plaster in the mixture, discard the mixture and start from scratch. After applying another plaster of course.
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Mix all the flours and spices (plain flour to ginger on recipe list, only 1 tsp for Baking powder) into a medium bowl, use your tsp measure to mix. This saves on washing up later. Set aside for later.
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Now this next part is where some bakers draw the line, separating an egg. It can be easy, or a pain in the neck. All I can say is good luck. I dislike this part so much I use (and have used for years now) a form of measuring spoon which separates the egg yolks and whites. Once you have chosen your technique or equipment, get a jug out and split the egg using that. If the egg doen’t split the first time, don’t sweat. Add this to a large bowl and try again. Remove any shell. Only do this for one egg.
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Once you have a yolk and whites separated, place the whites in a clean jug (if not already done) and the yolk in a large bowl. If your separating didn’t go to plan the first time around this will be the same bowl you have your full egg in. If you separated it perfectly first time: firstly well done, secondly crack a full egg into the large bowl. So after this you should have 1 egg’s white in a jug and 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg in a large bowl (2 egg yolks and 1 egg white to put it another way).
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To the jug add your remaining 1 tsp baking powder. Use an electric whisk to mix the egg white and baking powder in this jug until it reaches soft peaks. What do I mean by soft peaks?, glad you asked, It is very difficult to explain. Which is why in every recipe under the sun it uses this exact wording. Basically whisk it until the mix is not clear and when you remove your electric whisk (after turning it off, please don’t make that mistake) the mixture gets pulled up by the whisk heads and the “peak” shape that is formed falls/folds over. “Stiff peaks” is when the mixture makes this “peak” shape but doesn't fold over. That is when you can put it over your head and it won’t fall out of the bowl. Don’t do this with soft peaks. They are soft for a reason…
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To the large bowl measure out the dark muscovado sugar. Use the electric whisk to blitz these ingredients together. The electric whisk at this point has only been used for the egg whites on step 8) so they don’t need to be washed before you use them again. This order helps reduce prep time and you won’t have to wash up the whisk heads twice. Whisk this mixture for 2 mins. It should be thick and foamy at this point.
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Now slowly add in the oil. I know this may take some time but the slower you add the oil the better your results will be. I suggest around 1-2 tsp between uses of the electric whisk. Incorporate the oil you’ve added before you add any more.
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Once you have added all the oil. Tip in the flour mixture into the large bowl and fold it to incorporate. As with the oil, add this slowly. If you add it in too fast you will end up with lumps of flour in your bake and no-one wants that. Folding?, glad you asked, it’s simple to do. Hard to do correctly. I suggest using a silicone spatula, scoop the mixture off of the edges of the bowl and in a single stroke cut through the centre of your mixture. Repeat this again, making sure to pull the bottom of the egg mixture to the top. This process takes a while. But it is all worth it for that rise. You will find as you mix in the last third of your mixture that the mix becomes very stiff. It is dough consistency at around 2 thirds of the way. But persevere, I promise it gets better in the next step.
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Now you have reached the fun part, Add all your bowls/jugs you have set aside into the stiff gingerbread coloured mix in your large bowl. This is the jug with your soft peaks egg white, the bowl of grated carrot and the raisin mixture from the beginning. Make sure to add in the liquid from the raisin mixture in, your main mix needs the liquid.
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Now fold. As you fold you will find the mixture becomes easier to mix. As the liquid from the carrots, raisins and egg white balances out the flour and dry ingredients.
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You should be left with a gloopy mix. Now prepare your tin. I suggest you line a brownie tin(or one similar in size) with baking parchment. Use butter to ensure the parchment sticks to your tin.
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Pour your carrot mix into the tin. Using your spatula carefully spread the mixture to cover the base of the tin.
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Pour the coffee over the carrot cake mix. Don’t mix the coffee into the carrot cake, it should form a layer on top of the cake mix.
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Place your tin in the oven (preheated at step 2) ), set your timer/stopwatch for 1 hour and wait. You can use this time to wash up all these bowls, it’ll keep you occupied. So put some Christmas music on and 1 hour will fly by.
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Once the 1 hour is up, get a skewer (or a table knife like I do) and poke a hole into the largest (most risen) part of your bake. If it comes out clean, test the smallest (least risen) part. If both come out clean then the cake is cooked. If it isn’t cooked yet put it on for 5 more mins, repeat until it is cooked. If you are using a table knife ignore the crumbs you are getting on the end of your knife, only care if the mixture is moist and on the main part of the knife.
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Once cooked, leave to cool in the tin for at least 15 minutes. You could cut this up and serve. But if you want to get the full dish it’s now time to work on the Tiramisu part.
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Separate 2 eggs (labelled “more eggs” in the ingredients list) into egg whites and yolks and place the whites into a jug and the yolks into a bowl. Use the same separating method as you’ve used earlier in this recipe. Again I wish you luck. This time if your separating fails then place the failed mix into the fridge and use it for scrambled egg or another recipe. I would suggest you do this in steps using an extra mug to prevent one failed separating from ruining the other.
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Whisk the whites until Stiff peaks. If you’re confident it is stiff peaks, test it by holding the jug upside down above your head as the egg mix won’t fall out. You’ll soon find out if they weren't stiff peaks… If you’re making this recipe with someone, I give you permission to tell them they have egg on their face. If you are less confident, slowly tip the jug to check the mixture doesn’t move. Then you can be confident that when you hold it over your head it won’t fall out. If it is still liquidy, continue to use the electric whisk until it reaches stiff peaks.
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Add sugar to the yolks bowl and whisk for 8 mins using an electric whisk, the mixture should become a thick cream coloured mix.
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Add the mascarpone to the yolk mix and whisk until you cannot see any streaks of cheese and the mixture looks silky smooth. If you are adding Irish cream liqueur, add it now and mix until it is fully combined, add slowly like the oil previously to improve the final result.
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Now fold the two egg mixtures together into the bowl, make sure not to knock out too much air out of the mix.
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Fold the chocolate chips into the cream. Then add the cream mix onto the top of the carrot cake, which should still be in the deep tin. If your tin is not deep enough, then find a deeper tin and transfer as much of the carrot cake to the new tin as reasonable.
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Cover and place this in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, and the next day you’ll have a masterpiece.
If you want to experiment with this recipe, try adding a mix of different chocolate chips into the cream, or reducing the number of raisins in the base carrot cake mix. If you reached this point, I would love to find out how your’s went.