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.

Carrot Cream Cheese Filled Muffins

These muffins toe the line between muffins and cupcakes but because the icing is incorporated before baking, I'm calling them muffins. A friend suggested an Easter themed post and what could be more Easter than carrot cake? Also, I recently got a new camera, a Sony A200 DSLR. I need a macro lens and better lighting but I'm thrilled to be able to manually focus my shots. I also need a new tripod as the mounting bracket on mine is too long to mount the new camera. Reactions will be posted tomorrow.



Ingredients

Muffins

• 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp.baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 c. vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 c. shredded carrots
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
• 1/2 c. raisins that have been soaked for 10 minutes in hot water.

Filling

• 4 oz. softened cream cheese
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and vegetable oil until lightened. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins.
3. In another bowl cream cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
4. Fold dry ingredients into carrot mixture until just mix, do not over-mix. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter then add a teaspoon dollop of cream cheese filling on top of the batter.
5. Bake about 20 minutes at 350 or until a toothpick stuck into the cake part comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Lemon Cream Cheese Bars

This week's recipe is really just an excuse to use my new Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. The recipe comes from the included recipe book. Honestly, the mixer was a bit of an impulse buy. I had a 30% off coupon for their website, which miraculously included the refurbished outlet store. So I only paid $139.00 for what once was sold for $400 when new. Until today I had managed to live without even a hand-held electric, so I'm still trying to figure out where the stand mixer fits in my life, other sitting pretentiously on my counter in gleaming chrome metalic. After making this recipe, I'm starting to see how it can be useful. I'm hoping to make bread sometime this week now that we've got pretty good baking weather. Unfortunatly, preparing everything in a stand mixer makes taking pictures a bit difficult. Thoughts and reactions on this recipe tomorrow.



Ingredients

Crust

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 sticks butter, chilled and cut into chunks

Cream Cheese Filling

• 1 8oz package light cream cheese
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Lemon Filling

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• Zest of one lemon
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemons)

Directions

Crust
Place all ingredients in mixer bowl and STIR with flat beater 1 minute or until mixture starts sticking together. Press into ungreased 13x9 pan and bake at 350 for 14 to 16 minutes

Cream Cheese Filling
Place ingredients in mixer bowl and STIR with flat beater for 30 seconds. Turn to speed 4 and beat 2 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Pour over partially baked crust and bake for 6 to 7 minutes at 350 or until slightly set

Lemon Filling
Place all ingredients, except lemon juice, in mixer bowl and STIR with flat beater for 30 seconds. Turn to speed 2 and gradually add lemon juice. Mix about 30 second or until well blended. Pour over cream cheese filing and bake for 18 to 20 minutes at 350 or until filling is set. Cook completely in pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.