Metric Cream Cheese Carrot Cake

This recipe was a bit of a headache, mainly because it's in metric. It's a Marcus Wareing recipe. Wareing was formely Gordon Ramsay's Sous Chef at Aubergine and later they were partners in Gordon Ramsay Holdings. There is a youtube video of him making this cake and I've got the feeling his came out better than mine. One of the reasons is that like all world class chefs he cooks by weight instead of by volume. Unfortunately for all of my kitchen gadgets, a scale is not among them. Which meant I not only have to convert Metric to Imperial but mass to volume. This was such a pain I forgot to take pictures until just after the cake was in the oven. Below is my rough translation of Wareing's recipe. If ingredients are marked sold with metric weight on the package (carrots, nuts, cream cheese etc) I have not converted them. He also used a smaller diameter deeper pan, which makes the cook time longer for his recipe.



Ingredients

Cake

• 3 medium eggs
• 300g carrots, peeled and grated
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup Turbinado sugar
• 50g walnuts, chopped
• 1 1/4 cup plain white flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup warm milk
• 2 tsp baking soda
  

Cream Cheese Frosting Frosting

• 200g full-fat soft cheese
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
  
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1tbsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 350. Grease a deep 7" round cake tin [or a 9" tin as I did, Ed.].
2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the carrots, oil, sugar, and walnuts. Mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the flours with the cinnamon.
3. Gently stir the two mixtures together until half combined.
4. Heat the milk in a pan until warm, then remove from the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Add this liquid to the cake mixture and stir together until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 30--35 minutes (20--25 minutes if using 9" pan).
6. Test if the cake is cooked by piercing the center with a skewer: it should come out clean. If not, return to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes, then test again. Leave to cool in the tin.
7. Place all the ingredients for the frosting in a stand mixer and blend until smooth (or beat with an electric mixer or wooden spoon).
8. Cover the cake all over with the frosting. Refrigerate until set before slicing.