Today we make CARROT CAKE. Or rather, we make 3 versions -
The first: English / American - classic carrot cake. The second: Italian - Camilla cake
The third: sugar-free
Let's start with the American, or Anglo-Saxon, version of the carrot cake.
The first step is to preheat the oven to 170 degrees, then wash, grate and peel
the carrots.
The best way to peel carrots is to scrape them with a knife rather than peel them with
a peeler.
This way is faster and we will also waste less carrot.
Once scraped, we grate the carrots with the small holes of a grater.
I prefer to grate the carrots finely so that they melt in the dough and
you don't end up eating carrot chunks in the cake.
Then in this way they will also release the moisture more evenly.
My advice is to grate carrots at home rather than buying pre-grated carrots.
They are too dry and the carrot cake will not be as moist and soft as it should
be.
Once the carrots have been grated, put them aside and prepare the cake dough.
In a bowl, put 300 grams of flour, half 0 flour and half wholemeal flour.
Wholemeal flour is important for absorbing excess moisture from carrots and for giving
the cake a slightly coarser texture, as it should be.
Then we add the spices.
I add 2 or 3 teaspoons of cinnamon and a pinch of grated nutmeg.
Finally we put 16 grams, or a sachet of baking powder and a pinch
of salt.
The salt helps to accentuate the other flavors.
We mix these ingredients with a whisk, then set the bowl aside and prepare
the other ingredients.
In a bowl we put 180 grams of milk.
I use almond milk because it is light and goes great with carrots, but
oat milk also works very well.
Then we add 70 grams of sunflower oil and 150 grams of sugar, which is much less
than what you put in a classic carrot cake that can reach up to 400 grams.
So if you are used to sweets with a lot of sugar you can easily add
more, but we like it so much, with less sugar.
I tried to make this cake with different types of sweetener but in the end the
best version in my opinion is the one with brown sugar, both for the taste and for the texture.
If we don't want to use brown sugar, we can use coconut sugar
or date paste.
But in this case, we must keep in mind that the cake will be slightly less sweet,
a little more moist and with a more natural taste, which may not please everyone.
Then I'll show you how to do it with dates.
Now let's add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a small piece of fresh
grated ginger, which in my opinion goes too well with cinnamon and nutmeg.
We mix these ingredients well with a whisk, then in the same bowl, add
the flours.
We mix again with a spatula until the ingredients have just combined,
without mixing too much.
Mixing the cake batter too much will activate the gluten present in the flour and make
the cake thicker and less fluffy, so let's try to mix as little as possible.
Now add the grated carrots, give another quick stir, then add
50 grams of chopped walnuts and 50 grams of raisins.
These two ingredients are optional, but add a touch of natural sweetness and
lots of flavor to the carrot cake.
Do not worry if the batter seems too thick, carrots contain a lot of water
that will come out in cooking, making the cake very soft.
Once the ingredients are blended, we transfer the cake dough to a baking tray
lined with parchment paper.
We can use a round, a square or a rectangular one.
We can also use a muffin pan if we want.
Here we use a rectangular glass pan measuring 28 x 18 cm, but we also tried to
use a round one with a diameter of 23 cm and the cake looks great in both.
We bake in a hot oven at 170 degrees for about 40-45 minutes, and before taking out
the cake we check with a toothpick, which once inserted in the center of the cake
must come out dry.
And now the hardest part of this recipe.
We must wait for the carrot cake to cool completely before eating it or before
applying any icing on top.
I would advise you to wait at least three hours.
This time will allow the excess moisture in the carrots to dry out a bit and form
a light, soft crumb.
If we don't wait long enough for it to cool, the cake will be too mushy
to eat.
In the meantime, we can prepare the cream cheese glaze to stay true to the
American version.
So, the icing is totally optional and the cake is delicious even without it, but I
sacrifice myself for you and show you how to prepare it.
In a bowl we put 250 grams of vegetable spreadable cheese.
There are many brands available nowadays, so choose the one you
like best from your local supermarket.
If your supermarket does not have any type of vegetable spreadable cheese, you can
point it out to the store manager and ask if he or she will order it.
Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar, then the grated zest of half a lemon
or, if desired, lime and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
We mix the ingredients well together, then when we have a smooth cream, remove
the carrot cake from the pan and spread a generous layer of icing over the cake.
So, since plant-based spreadable cheese usually has little or no saturated fat and
since there is no butter added to this glaze, it tends to melt faster
than regular cream cheese.
So if we don't spread it right away, make sure we keep it in the fridge.
Also, in this carrot cake we use a lot less sugar and oil than other recipes
you find online.
So we rely on spices, nuts and raisins for flavor, healthy fats
and sweetness, and while there is less sugar, less oil and no eggs, the flavor of this
cake is absolutely amazing and rich, and the texture it is light and soft.
It's so soft and perfectly moist, without being overly sweet or heavy.
The carrots have completely dissolved in the dough and the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon go
together too well.
We love this carrot cake too much!
And we are delighted to share this simple recipe with you.
I hope you like it as much as we did!
And now, while the Anglo-Saxon carrot cake is certainly the most popular of all and
known all over the world, I want to show you another version that is perhaps best known
here in Italy - the carrot cake made like mulino bianco le camille.
This recipe is a little lighter and simpler than the American version and is generally
eaten for breakfast or as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.
First we heat the oven to 170 C and line a pan with parchment paper.
I also brush the sides of the pan with a little oil.
We use one of those that open to the side, 22 centimeters hinged cake pan.
In a bowl, put 250 grams of flour, half of type 0 and half wholemeal.
Then we add 60 grams of almond flour, 16 grams or a sachet of baking
powder and 120 grams of brown sugar.
We give a stir with a whisk and set aside.
Now in a blender, we put 250 grams of peeled and chopped carrots, the
grated rind of an orange, preferably untreated since we eat it, then
cut the orange in half and squeeze its juice, adding 60 grams to the blender
with carrots.
Then we put 80 grams of almond milk which suits us perfectly and recalls the flavor
of almonds, 40 grams of sunflower oil, and we blend until obtaining
a smooth consistency, almost like a carrot smoothie.
In this Italian-style carrot cake we put pureed carrots instead of grated carrots
and use the orange flavor instead of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
Orange and carrots together make an amazing pairing and make this cake light,
fresh and simply delicious.
If you've never tried this combination, I'm sure you'll love it. We
add the pureed carrots to the bowl with the flours and mix with a spatula
until we have a single mixture.
Again, we try to mix only as long as it takes to combine the ingredients,
without mixing too much.
We transfer the dough into the pan, level it with a spatula, then bake at 170 degrees
for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and let it cool completely, again it will take
at least 3 hours, then if you want we can sprinkle the carrot cake with a little icing sugar
on top.
While this is probably one of the easiest cakes ever, its flavor
is absolutely outstanding.
The cake itself is light, with a soft and slightly moist heart.
Almond flour gives it a delicate flavor and together with carrots and oranges
a pleasant and refined combination of flavors is created.
It has a decidedly more Mediterranean taste than the classic carrot cake and we love it
for a quick breakfast or as a light mid-afternoon snack with a cup of tea.
WITHOUT SUGAR
Then as promised, as a final recipe, I will show you how to turn these cakes into
sweets without added sugar.
Anyone who has been following us for a while probably already knows that our favorite sugar substitute
is dates.
Dates are not only healthy and wholesome, they are also very sweet and you can use them to replace
sugar at a 1: 1 ratio.
The best way to use dates is to transform them into a date paste
simply by first soaking them for about 10 minutes in hot water,
then blending them at high speed with a little water, until you get a date paste
that you can keep for months in a closed container in the refrigerator.
But if you don't have date paste, then you can also blend whole, pitted dates
along with the liquid ingredients.
For example, in this case we add 250 grams of carrots, the zest of 1 orange,
60 grams of orange juice, 40 grams of vegetable oil, 80 grams of almond milk
and 120 grams of whole pitted dates in a blender at high speed.
If you are not used to eating sugar-free cakes but are curious to try, then
you may want to start by gradually reducing the sugar.
Here, for example, you could add half sugar and half dates.
Blend until you have a smooth liquid, then add the liquid to a bowl
where we have previously mixed 250 grams of flour (half integral half universal),
60 grams of almond flour and 16 grams of baking powder.
As before we mix the batter with a spatula until the ingredients are
just combined, then we can cook the cake.
With this cake batter we can also make muffins, cupcakes or donuts.
To make muffins, we transfer the carrot cake dough to a muffin pan lined
with baking cups.
We can make up to 12 muffins with these quantities.
We bake in a preheated oven at 170 ° C for about 18 minutes.
These carrot muffins are naturally delicious and soft.
They are perfect as a quick breakfast or even as a snack.
They are also quite healthy and nutritious, thanks to the dates and carrots.
But our favorite way to use this sugar-free dough is to
make cute little donuts.
To make them we will need a donut pan.
We brush it with oil, then transfer the batter into a pastry bag and fill
the molds.
About 12 donuts come out.
We do not put too much batter into the pan, in reality I have added a little too much here,
then we bake the donuts in a hot oven at 170 for about 13-15 minutes, depending on
how big your donuts are.
These carrot and sugar-free donuts are irresistible, perfect to take with
us during the day and are also perfect as a snack for children as there is no
sugar.
So, I usually taste everything we cook on this channel, but this
time I just couldn't eat anything else, so Louise did the taste test
for me.
And she agrees too!
They taste so good, they are naturally sweet and they are really nutritious.
They are the perfect snack to take with us during a busy day or as a
healthy and genuine snack.
A THANK YOU!