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Carrot cake with cream cheese and walnuts
Carrot cake with cream cheese and walnuts is a fragrant, spicy dessert that has gained incredible popularity in the last couple of years. It contains aromatic spices, and in addition, carrot is added to the batter, which gives the layers juiciness while the taste of the carrot is not noticeable. The light creamy layer goes wonderfully with the spicy layers. Carrot cake with cream cheese and walnuts is not difficult to prepare. It will be a true decoration of the festive table, pleasing you and your guests.
Preparation time: 8 hours.
Ingredients
Show ingredients
For the cake:
- flour – 165 g;
- eggs – 2 pcs;
- grated carrot – 175 g;
- walnuts – 60 g;
- vegetable oil – 100 g;
- baking soda – ½ tsp;
- baking powder – 1 tsp;
- sugar – 200 g;
- salt – 1/3 tsp;
- cinnamon – 1 tsp;
- nutmeg - a pinch.
For the cream:
- butter (soft) – 100 g;
- cream cheese (like Philadelphia) – 350 g;
- powdered sugar – 50 g.
Preparation
- Prepare the ingredients for the spicy layers.
- You'll also need walnuts. They need to be shelled and cleaned, then dried in a skillet. Heat a dry skillet and transfer the walnuts into it. Dry them for a few minutes until a pleasant aroma rises. Immediately remove the skillet from the heat, transfer the walnuts to another dish to stop the frying process and prevent them from burning. The walnuts should be covered with a napkin and allowed to rest.
- Finely chop the cooled walnuts using a regular knife.
- You will need three medium carrots. Choose juicy and fresh carrots (wilted carrots are not suitable). Peel the carrots.
- Grate the carrots on the finest grater. You can also use a food processor or other grinder.
- In a deep bowl, pour in the vegetable oil and add all the sugar. Mix using a mixer.
- Crack the eggs into a separate bowl.
- While continually beating the oil with the sugar, add the eggs one at a time.
- Be sure to add salt to the batter for flavor.
- Prepare the dry ingredients.
- Place a sieve over the bowl with the egg-oil mixture. Put all the dry ingredients in the sieve and sift them.
- Using a spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into a homogeneous mixture.
- Add the prepared walnuts, mixing well so that the walnuts are evenly distributed in the batter.
- Now, add the carrot and mix thoroughly.
- The shape in which to bake the layers depends on how you want to serve the finished cake. If your cake will be round, bake the layers in a springform pan for sponges. Since our cake will be rectangular, we will bake the layer in a wide baking sheet. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper beforehand. During baking, our batter will rise, so we shape the edges from the paper. As a precaution, cover the paper with vegetable oil. Transfer all the batter to the baking sheet, spreading it evenly with a silicone spatula or a spatula.
- Preheat the oven to 180⁰ C, top and bottom mode. Bake the layer for twenty to thirty minutes, depending on the power of your oven. Check the readiness of the layer using a wooden skewer or toothpick.
- Transfer the finished layer to a cooling rack and allow time to cool.
- Trim the edges of the cooled layer, cutting off one or two centimeters from all sides.
- At this stage, the cooled layer can be cut into two equal parts to make a two-layer cake. We want to make a three-layer cake, so using toothpicks, make marks for cutting the layers evenly.
- Cut the whole layer into three parts.
- If you do not plan to finish making the cake that day, the cake layers can be wrapped in parchment paper and then covered with plastic wrap. Send the layers in this form to the refrigerator. In the refrigerator, the layers can be stored for up to three days, but we will be preparing the cake the next day. Allowing the layers to rest in the refrigerator helps to distribute the moisture evenly in the baking. The possibility of storing the layers in the refrigerator is convenient for preparing the cake for the celebration.
- There is no need to throw away the trimmings of the cake; they can be left right on the table to dry out.
- Dried cake trimmings can be crushed in a blender, or you can grate them on a fine grater.
- For the cream, we will need cream cheese, which is very easy to make at home. For this, you can take an ordinary package of kefir that you like. For the cream according to the recipe, you need to take two packages of one liter each. It is better to choose a higher fat content (2.5-3.2%). Send the kefir straight in the packages to the freezer until completely frozen (four to six hours).
- Set a colander over a deep bowl. Line the colander with four to six layers of cheesecloth, transfer the frozen kefir, having first removed it from the package.
- Cover the frozen kefir with the loose edges of the cheesecloth and leave it on the table until fully thawed.
- This is the homogeneous and elastic cream cheese we have achieved.
- Prepare the ingredients for the cream according to the list.
- Transfer the ingredients to a bowl. We will whip the cream with a blender or a mixer.
- Beat the cheese cream until fluffy.
- Generously spread the cheese cream between the layers.
- Cover the top and sides of the cake with cream. If there are any irregularities, smooth them with cream.
- Cover the entire cake with crumbs.
- Decorate the carrot cake with walnuts as desired. Carrots should be included in the decoration.
This is such an original little cake that can be prepared for the holiday. The fragrant, delicious, and vibrant carrot cake with cream cheese will surely please your guests.
