As part of our swan blog series we have invited our very talented swan, Louise Arnold to share a recipe a month for you to enjoy! Outside of the nest, Louise has her own business, baking cakes and treats for weddings or private events. We’ve had the pleasure of trying some of her creations, and we can confirm, they are delicious!!
This months recipe is Carrot Cake and we’d love to see your versions of this, so feel free to tag us in your pictures on social media!
I recently started working with a couple whose wedding is later this year. Before deciding on the flavour choices, I always offer to make some taster cupcakes, so the couple are happy with the recipe I plan to use. Carrot cake was one of their favourites so I thought I would share my recipe with you. It’s super easy to make this gluten and/or dairy free and I am often asked for a dairy free version (as cream cheese frosting isn’t usually easy to find dairy free!) The cake itself is naturally dairy free as it uses oil instead of butter.
Cake:
Frosting:
Sugar carrots for decorating
3 x 20cm lined cake tins
Free standing mixer or hand mixer
Preheat the oven to 170oC (150oC fan)
For the cream cheese frosting, in a clean bowl sift the icing sugar over the butter and mix in the free standing mixer or with electric handheld mixer until almost combined. Add all of the cream cheese in one go and beat until completely incorporated. Continue beating for around 3-5 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.
To assemble, take one cold cake and place onto a cake stand or board and spread a small amount of frosting on top (enough to cover the cake with about 0.5cm of frosting). Place the second cake on top and spread a small amount of frosting on top. Top with the final layer and spread the frosting over the sides and cake to create a crumb coat. Pop the cake in the fridge for about 15 minutes, and then spread the remaining frosting on top. This takes a little longer but it stop crumbs of cake appearing in the frosting leaving you with a nice clean look. I also like to leave a little frosting to put into a piping bag with a star nozzle.
To add the ridges (as shown in the picture), I use a palette knife and gently spin the cake on a cake decorating stand, using the palette knife to add a ridge, moving it up slowly so the ridges move up the cake. For the top, I again gently spin the cake and move the palette knife from the outside in to create a swirl. If you don’t have a spinning cake stand, you could use a palette knife to create vertical ridges around the sides. I then take the frosting I saved in a piping bag and add small rosettes around the top edge, and top with the sugar carrots.
To store, I’d suggest keeping in the fridge and getting out 15-30 minutes before serving.
Cake should be stored in the fridge and would last about 3 days.
LABakes – @labakesnorwich
If you would like to give this recipe a try, we would love to see what you create! Please tag us in your posts on social media:
Instagram – @indigo_swan_norwich
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