Scrumptious Orange Carrot Cake Food

EASY ORANGE-CARROT CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square or 10-inch round cake pan with a little vegetable oil. Line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment or waxed paper, cut to fit. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the oil and sugar. Beat in the eggs, orange zest, and juice. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the chopped walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and grated carrot. Mix just until combined (don't overmix, because this will affect how the cake rises).
• Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake 50 minutes, or until golden. Check doneness by poking a skewer or toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked; if it's still slightly sticky, put it back in the oven for a few more minutes.
• Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn it out onto a rack to cool completely before icing.
• For the icing, place the sour cream in a mixing bowl. Sift in the powdered sugar and grate in the zest of one orange. Halve the orange and squeeze in the juice from one half. Whisk everything together until glossy. It will be a fairly loose consistency. Spread thinly over the top of the cake. Grate a little more orange zest on top of the cake. Slice the remaining orange and serve on the side. Makes 16 servings.

OLD-FASHIONED CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar and oil. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; beat into egg mixture. Stir in carrots., Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely., For frosting, in another large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Add enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency. Reserve 1/2 cup frosting for decorating if desired. If desired, stir walnuts into remaining frosting. , Spread frosting between layers and over top and sides of cake. If decorating the cake, tint 1/4 cup reserved frosting orange and 1/4 cup green. Cut a small hole in the corner of pastry or plastic bag; insert #7 round pastry tip. Fill the bag with orange frosting. Pipe twelve carrots on top of cake, so each slice will have a carrot. Using #67 leaf pastry tip and the green frosting, pipe a leaf at the top of each carrot. , Store cake in the refrigerator.

LITTLE CARROT CAKES WITH ORANGE & HONEY SYRUP

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and oil a 12-hole muffin tin, or line it with muffin cases. In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flour, bicarb, mixed spice and orange zest. Whisk together the eggs, oil and yogurt, then stir into the dry ingredients along with the grated carrots. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, or divide between the cases, if using, then bake for 20-22 mins until a skewer inserted in to the middle comes out clean. Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack and leave them to cool a little.
• Meanwhile, to make the syrup, heat the honey and orange juice in a pan. Bring to the boil, then simmer for a minute until syrupy. Spoon a few tsp over each cake while still warm, then leave to cool completely. For the icing, mix the mascarpone, yogurt and icing sugar until just combined (if you over-mix, it will become runny). Use a palette or cutlery knife to swirl the icing on top of the cakes, drizzle with a little more honey, if you like, and decorate with edible flowers or orange zest.

THREE-LAYER CARROT CAKE

Steps:

• Make the cake: Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Brush three 9-inch-round cake pans with vegetable oil and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and bake until toasted, about 10 minutes. Let cool, then pulse in a food processor until very finely chopped.
• Combine the pecans, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and granulated sugar in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the vegetable oil, lemon zest, eggs and 1/2 cup marmalade. Stir in the carrots, then fold the carrot mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Divide among the prepared pans and spread evenly (it won't look like a lot of batter, but the cakes will rise in the oven). Put 2 pans on the upper oven rack and the third pan on the lower rack. Bake until the cakes bounce back when touched and a toothpick comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, switching the position of the pans halfway through. Transfer the pans to racks until cool enough to handle, then invert the cakes onto the racks to cool completely. Remove the parchment.
• Make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter in a bowl with a mixer until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and salt until smooth.
• Put 1 cake layer on a platter. Spread with 1 tablespoon marmalade, then spread about 3/4 cup frosting over the marmalade. Top with another cake layer, marmalade and frosting. Spread the final cake layer with a thin layer of frosting. (This is the crumb coat; it doesn't have to be perfect.) Refrigerate 1 hour, then cover with the remaining frosting. Swirl some marmalade into the top of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Photograph by Con Poulos

CARROT, COURGETTE & ORANGE CAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the bases of 2 x 20cm round cake tins with baking parchment. Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, bicarb, zest and the mixed spice together, then stir in the carrot and courgette. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer inserted in comes out clean. Cool.
• To make the topping, mix enough of the orange juice into the icing sugar to give a thick, but drizzly icing. Drizzle over the cakes, then scatter with the zest and leave to set.

CARROT CAKE

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
• Tip the sugar, sunflower oil and eggs into a big mixing bowl. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the carrots, raisins and orange zest.
• Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into the bowl. Mix everything together, the mixture will be soft and almost runny.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 mins or until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre.
• Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point if you want to serve it at a later date.)
• Beat the icing sugar and orange juice in a small bowl until smooth - you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Put the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.

CARROT-ORANGE CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Steps:

• For cake:
• Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly butter 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Line bottom with waxed paper; butter paper. Using electric mixer, beat oil and both sugars in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in orange juice and peel. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt into large bowl; add to sugar mixture and beat to blend. Stir in carrots and raisins.
• Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Transfer pan to rack. Cool cake 15 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack. Remove waxed paper and cool. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap tightly in plastic and store at room temperature.)
• For Frosting:
• Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light. Beat in orange juice and 2 teaspoons orange peel. Add sugar; beat until smooth. Refrigerate until thick enough to spread, about 30 minutes.
• Using serrated knife, cut cake horizontally into 2 equal layers. Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 1 1/2 cups frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Using icing spatula, spread remaining frosting in thick decorative swirls over top and side of cake. (Carrot cake can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate.) Serve cake cold or at room temperature.

CARROT & ORANGE CAKE WITH CASHEW CREAM ICING

Steps:

• FOR THE SPICE BLEND:.
• 3 tablespoons cinnamon.
• 1 teaspoons each ground cardamom and carraway.
• 1/4 teaspoons each nutmeg, ginger and cloves.
• FOR THE DATE PASTE:.
• If your dates are hard, soak them for about 20 mts. in the orange juice. If your dates aren't soft in 20 minutes leave them in the juice until they are. This is important. Once soft process these in a food processor so that you have a nice paste.
• ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer slowly mix all the ingredients. Either shape into individual cakes or press into an 8x8" glass pyrex dish.
• Put into the fridge and let set up for at least 2 hours or *you can also dehydrate this by placing on a dehydrator sheet for 8-12 hours at 115'F.
• FOR THE FROSTING:.
• Blend all the ingredients in a high speed blender such as a Vita Mix, until smooth.
• Place the frosting in the fridge to thicken up, then ice your carrot cake. You can do this all at once of add a little to each piece. Its up to you.
• Garnish the cake with ground nutmeg.
• Bon Appetit!