This is another butterless cake. This time, however, the batter is made from eggs, carrots and coconut. I found this recipe in an Italian chocolate cookbook modestly called Il Cioccolato (Chocolate), but I had to slightly adapt the recipe to make it work my way. The cake itself does not require much skill: the all in one method seems to be working miracles here. The chocolate is also merely a glazing on top, so you could deceive yourself into eating slice after slice by justifying your actions with how healthy the cake really is.
Ingredients
- 300g carrots
- 150g soft light brown sugar
- 150g desiccated coconut + extra for decorating
- 150g ground almonds
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100g dark chocolate
- 50ml double cream, at room temperature
Method
- Start by peeling and finely grating the carrots. Please be advised that the 300g indicated above are the quantity needed of finely grated carrots, and not of the unpeeled and whole vegetables.
- Line and butter a 20cm deep cake tin. Do not use sandwich tins or the cake will overflow. Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
- In a big bowl or in the bowl of a freestanding mixer, add the eggs, sugar, carrots, coconut and almonds, then mix to combine. Your cake batter will be slightly denser than what you are normally used to, but that is desirable.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Increase the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for another 40 minutes. In the last 10-15 minutes, cover the surface of the tin with a sheet of foil to prevent the top from burning.
- Check if the cake is cooked by testing it with a toothpick or a skewer, then remove from the oven and leave to cool completely in the cake tin. The cake will shrink slightly and come away from the sides.
- While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate ganache. Break the chocolate into chunks and put into a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Melt the chocolate and then add the cream, mixing to combine.
- Take the bowl off the heat and let the ganache cool to room temperature, until it thickens nicely.
- Lay the cake on the cake stand or serving dish of your choice, then pour the ganache on top and spread with a palette knife to smooth the top and cover the sides. Dust with some desiccated coconut and leave to cool and harden.
The cake before icing
Baking with Attitude 