Carrot Cake with gold marble chocolate eggs

Carrot cake (For 15-20 servings / 3 layer-cake (9 inches) !

Ingredients (For the carrot cake)

375g of flour

3g of baking soda

8g of baking powder

4g of salt

4g of cardamom powder (Elaiti)

30ml of vanilla essence (1 small bottle - I use the 'Robson' brand)

120g of brown sugar (Demerera - See picture: step 3)

120g of brown sugar (Light muscovado - See picture: step 3)

165g of unsalted butter (at room temperature)

60ml of any flavorless oil (eg: coconut oil, grape seed oil, canola oil etc...)

5 small eggs

225g of finely grated carrots

x3 9-inches cake pans (I have only 2 pans so I baked my cake layers in 2 batches (2+1) )

Tons of love

Ingredients (For the cream cheese frosting)

600g of cold (straight from the refrigerator) Philadelphia cream cheese (3 boxes of 200g - in original version)

120g of unsalted butter

Pinch of cardamom (optional)

255g powdered sugar (i.e icing sugar)

1 teaspoon of almond essence

Green food color gel

200g of white compound chocolate

50g of dark compound chocolate

6 large chocolate eggs (See picture: step 20)

5 small chocolate eggs (See picture: step 25)

Gold edible luster dust (diluted in a small amount of lime/lemon juice)

2 disposable piping bags

400g of crushed salted peanuts

Note: The cake should be stored in the refrigerator .

Procedure

Step 1 (Carrot cake batter): Peel, wash and grate your carrots (finely).

Step 2 : Mix your eggs and vanilla essence together.

tep 3 : In a bowl add your 2 types of brown sugar (Demerera + light Muscovado), oil and butter.

Step 4 : Using your electric mixer, cream all the ingredients together !

Step 5 : Add in your grated carrots and continue mixing until combined .

Step 6 : Add your egg + vanilla mixture (from step 2) and mix just until combined (Do not overmix !).

Step 7 : Sift your dry ingredients (flour, salt, cardamom powder, baking soda and baking powder) over the carrot mixture .

Step 8 : Do a final mix (just until combined, do not overmix) and voila, your carrot cake batter is ready !

Tip: It is very important not to overmix your batter to avoid activation of too much gluten resulting in a rubbery rather than a soft/ moist cake texture ...

Step 9 : Transfer your batter (About 450g of batter per cake layer ) to your pans lined with parchment paper and bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees Celsius for about 16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center . Once baked, allow to cool completely ...

Step 10 : Prepare your cream cheese frosting (See how to prepare the frosting from my red velvet cake recipe : Link )) then fill your cake accordingly (2 layers of filling for 3 layers of cake ).

Step 11 : Then frost your cake only on the side as shown below !

Step 12: Add 2-3 drops of green food color to the remaining cream cheese frosting and mix until you obtain a uniform color.

Step 13 : Add the remaining green frosting to the top of the cake as shown below ...

Step 14 : Crush your peanuts in large or small pieces as per your preference .

Step 15 : Add/ stick your crushed peanuts on the side of your cake over the white frosting !

Step 16 : Melt your white compound chocolate.

Step 17 : Add 4-5 drops of green food color to your melted white chocolate and mix until you obtain a uniform color .

Step 18 : Using your grass piping tip, pipe your chocolate grass in a circular motion towards the center ).

Tip: You may purchase a grass piping tip (~Rs30) on Ebay .

Step 19 : Woohoo ! grass everywhere ...

Step 20: Get your large chocolate eggs !

Step 21: Stick them as shown below using a small amount of melted chocolate .

Step 22: Gold painting has never been so easy !

Step 23: Tada !

Step 24: Pipe your melted dark compound chocolate in the center (increase thickness on the border) forming a 'nest' shape .

Step 25: Before your chocolate starts to harden, quickly add your smaller eggs !

Voila

Happy Easter ...

Bon appetit !...

Green (4-layers / 4g of green food color powder added) carrot cake (based on the 'customers`' demand (my parents ) for their 40th Wedding Anniversary !

THANK YOU FOR WATCHING !...