rich and moist carrot cake

some desserts are so good you have to make them more than once, this is the case with the carrot cake - it never fails to amaze me how good it turns out especially if you adjust the recipe a bit

here is the recipe for the more classical carrot cake

and here is what I made this time: carrot cake with a hazelnut twist and big chunks of dark chocolate (which made the filling so crunchy)

now this cake is called Valentine's solely for the hearts sprinkled on top (part of my Christmas presents), otherwise I am not a supporter of this day, where the men have to buy you flowers out of obligation and show love because they are pushed to, but let's not spoil the gorgeous recipe with my thoughts on the subject

Ingredients 

(for a cake in 18cm cake pan)

for the cake

150g all purpose sifted flour

250g grated carrots

130g dark cane sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1tsp soda bicarbonate

1tsp baking powder

50g chopped hazelnuts

150ml sunflower oil

2 eggs

50g chopped dark chocolate (60% cocoa) 

for the frosting

250g cream cheese

125g powder sugar

90g soft butter

+

50g chopped hazelnuts

50g chopped dark chocolate

sugar hearts from decoration

Flour, soda bicarbonate, baking powder, vanilla essence and cinnamon are mixed well in a big bowl. Then the cane sugar, carrots and 50g of the hazelnuts are added and stirred into the mixture. Finally the oil and beaten eggs are added too. Then sprinkle the chopped dark chocolate into the dough :)

The oven is pre-heated to 180C and the baking pan is covered with baking paper (an easy tutorial on how to cover the whole cake pan from within is coming soon). Baking took almost 50 minutes, so it all depends on the oven at 35 minutes start observing how your cake is doing :) and make sure a toothpick comes out clean. Then we take the cake out, leave it too cool off for 10 minutes, remove from the pan and leave to cool off completely on a metal rack (3-4 hours, if not overnight).

to put the cake together you have to cut the layers (this time I cut in three) and to prepare the cream cheese frosting. All the ingredients should be at room temperature and the butter should be soft. First the butter is beaten with mixer until white, then the cream cheese is incorporated, final touch is the powder sugar, which will liquefy it all, so be careful not to make the mixture too liquid. Then divide the cream in 3 aaalmost equal portions (one should be bigger since it will cover the outside of the cake). The other two portions come between the layers - so follow: cream, hazelnuts and chocolate, then another layer, hazelnuts and chocolate and cover with the top layer. Spread the cream equally on the top and on the sides (my cream was thichker this time so it was able to hold to the walls). The sides I covered with leftovers from hazelnuts ad chocolate dust. The top I sprinkled with pinky and purple sugar hearts.

Then the cake is left in the fridge for a couple of hours and should be kept again in the fridge in an air tight container up to 4-5 days.

Share with me your thoughts on carrot cakes :)