We love the fluffy moistness of carrot cake, but we also love the spices of Christmas cake – So we’ve combined these two to make a not so traditional but very yummy Christmas carrot cake!
Ingredients
Spiced carrot cake
- 3 eggs
- 200g butter (melted)
- ¼ cup full-fat unsweetened Greek yoghurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 orange (zest)
- 1 ¼ cups spelt flour
- ½ cup almond meal
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 cups grated carrots
- ½ cup pecans (roughly chopped)
- ¼ cup each cranberries, currants
Mascarpone Icing
- 250g mascarpone
- 1 orange (zest)
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp nutmeg
Candied Pecans
- ⅓ cup of pecans
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp butter
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius fan bake; line and grease a 23cm tin.
- In a medium bowl mix the dry ingredients together – spelt flour, almond meal, spices, baking powder and baking soda; use a whisk to mix and remove any lumps.
- In a large bowl add eggs, butter, yoghurt, vanilla, coconut sugar and orange zest, mix with an electric beater until smooth and creamy.
- With the beater setting on low, add the dry ingredients (slowly, add incrementally) to the egg mix.
- Fold through grated carrots, pecans, cranberries and currants.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and place it into the centre of the oven.
- Bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean and the cake is golden in colour. Set aside to cool before removing from the tin.
- Meanwhile, make the icing. Add the ingredients to a medium bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Place into the fridge to get firmer while you prepare your candied pecans.
- To make the candied pecans melt butter and honey in a small saucepan over medium heat, add pecans and cook for 2 minutes. Remove and place onto parchment paper to cool and harden, then roughly chop with a knife. Once the cake has cooled, spread the icing on top of the cake and sprinkle over the candied pecans.
