This is another test recipe for Ellie and Ru’s wedding cake in Sark in June – carrot cake is Ru’s favourite so one of the tiers has to be carrot! I thought as well as a vegan tier (my vegan lemon cake) I’d try to make a gluten-free cake for any coeliacs at the party. Today we had a sunny bank holiday lunch on the waterfront in Cardiff Bay for my sister’s birthday (who is also a coeliac) so I decided to give it a whirl and we had it in our garden afterwards. This is a version of a Venetian carrot cake based on a Nigella Lawson recipe, but I’m using orange instead of lemon, and almonds instead of pine nuts.
8 oz medium carrots, peeled
3oz golden sultanas
4 tbsp rum
5 oz caster sugar
125ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 free-range eggs
9 oz ground almonds
½ tsp ground nutmeg
Half an orange, finely grated zest and juice
3 tbsp flaked almonds
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the base of a 9 inch round springform cake tin and grease the sides with olive oil.
- Grate the carrots with a coarse grater, then sit them on a double layer of kitchen paper and wrap them, to soak up excess liquid. Set aside.
- Put the golden sultanas in a small saucepan with the rum, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 3 minutes.
- Whisk the sugar and oil until creamily and airily mixed.
- Whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs and, when well whisked, fold in the ground almonds, nutmeg, grated carrots, golden sultanas (with any rum that clings to them) and, finally, the orange zest and juice.
- Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very shallow in the tin.
- Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the cake and put it into the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until the top is risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out sticky but more or less clean.
- Remove from the oven and let the cake sit in its tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unspring and leave it on the rack to cool.
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