Carolean celebration carrot cake

Name: Carolean celebration carrot cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 225 g light brown soft sugar; 225 g golden caster sugar; 450 ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing; 4 British Blacktail Medium Free Range Eggs; 450 g self-raising flour; 1½ tsp ground cinnamon; ¾ tsp ground ginger; 450 g Waitrose Duchy Organic Carrots, grated; 150 g raisin, nut & cranberry mix; 2 oranges, scrubbed, zest; ½ x 340g jar Waitrose Duchy Organic Seville Orange Fine Cut Marmalade, to decorate; 1 tbsp Cooks’ Ingredients Bronze Crunch, to decorate

Will Torrent's tall, shimmering carrot cake fits the party bill perfectly. The layers can be made up to a month ahead and frozen, so you can pace the prep as you like

5 out of 5 stars(4) Rate this recipe

Vegetarian

Serves12
CourseCake
Prepare20 mins
Cook45 mins
Total time1 hr 5 mins

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Ingredients

225g light brown soft sugar
225g golden caster sugar
450ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
4 British Blacktail Medium Free Range Eggs
450g self-raising flour
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
¾ tsp ground ginger
450g Waitrose Duchy Organic Carrots, grated
150g raisin, nut & cranberry mix
2 oranges, scrubbed, zest
½ x 340g jar Waitrose Duchy Organic Seville Orange Fine Cut Marmalade, to decorate
1 tbsp Cooks’ Ingredients Bronze Crunch, to decorate

For the soak

2 oranges, juice, to make 100ml
1 lemon, juice, to make 50ml
100g golden caster sugar

For the buttercream

300g butter, softened
300g icing sugar, sifted
300g Philadelphia Original soft cheese
2 oranges, scrubbed, zest

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. Grease and line the bases of 3 x 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment. In a large bowl, whisk the sugars, oil and eggs together until smooth. Slowly add the flour, spices and a pinch of salt, then beat until well mixed.
Fold in the carrots, the raisin, nut & cranberry mix and orange zest until evenly spread through the batter. Pour into the tins evenly and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins for 20 minutes, then cool fully on a wire rack. As the cakes cool, simmer the orange juice, lemon juice and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved, then set aside.
Make the buttercream. Put the butter into a large bowl and, using an electric hand mixer, beat for about 5 minutes, until pale and silky. Slowly incorporate the icing sugar and, once combined, beat on high speed for 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and orange zest until just combined (don’t beat the cheese for too long, otherwise it makes the frosting too loose).
Stack the first cake on a cake plate and brush with some of the orange and lemon syrup. Spoon over 150g of the buttercream, then repeat with the next layers. Brush the top cake layer with syrup. Smooth 400g more of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake and spread smoothly. If you have a cake turntable and scraper, use these to make it really smooth.
Put the remaining 200g frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle, and pipe 12 large rosettes around the top edge of the cake. Spoon the marmalade into the middle and spread it out. Scatter the piped buttercream with the bronze crunch. Keep the cake in a cool place.