Swiss Carrot Cake

My mom is a big fan of carrot cake. In honour of Mother's Day I've baked her a carrot cake using Sonja Watson's winning recipe from the People's Cookbook, a British TV cooking show. Believe it or not, there's no oil or butter in the recipe! The cake turned out to be tender and very moist. It was also lightly spiced and tasted refreshing with a hint of lemon.

As I was busy  capturing pictures of the sliced cake, my Daughter G couldn't wait to tuck into the cake and kept pestering me. For a person who never fancied carrot cake before, I was surprised at her eargerness to eat the cake. To my amazement, she even helped herself to a second piece! I guess that says alot about this cake.

Swiss Carrot Cake
(Recipe from The People's Cookbook)

Ingredients:
5 eggs, separated
250 gm sugar
1/2 lemon, finely grated zest and strained juice
100 gm plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 gm carrots, grated
250 gm ground almonds

Kirsch Icing:
200 gm icing sugar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp kirsch
50 gm almonds, dry roasted and finely chopped

Method:
1.  Grease a 22 cm springform cake tin.
2. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl with a tiny pinch of salt until they are stiff, then set them aside. Mix the egg yolks and sugar in another bowl until smooth, and stir in the lemon zest and juice. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, carrots and almond meal and mix everything together well. Gently fold in the whisked egg whites.
3. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and put it into an unheated oven. Set the oven to 180C/350F, and bake the cake for 50–60 minutes until it is baked through. Test by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake and removing it; if it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. For the Kirsch icing: sift the icing sugar into a bowl and mix it with the water and kirsch until you have a smooth paste. Pour this on to the cold cake and spread it evenly over the top and sides, using a warm knife. Finally coat the sides and rim of the cake with a 2–3 cm wide band of the almonds.




Happy Mother's Day!