The Best Carrot Cake

This is absolutely the best carrot cake that I have ever tasted....by far!!

250g butter, softened

250g brown sugar

5 eggs, separated

zest and juice of 1 orange

170g flour

1 tsp bakin powder

100g almonds, chopped

100g walnuts, chopped

250g carrots, peeled and grated

sea salt

For the Icing

150g mascarpone cheese

200g cream cheese

100g icing sugar, sifted

zest and juice of 1 lime

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat the egg yolks in one by one and then add the orange zest and juice. Stir in the shifted flour and baking powder. Add the chopped almonds and walnuts and mix together.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then fold them into the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into a buttered cake tin and bake in the oven for 45 minutes until golden and risen.

3. Leave the cake to cool for one hour until you put on the icing.

4. To make the icing, mix all the ingredients together and spread over the top of the cake. Finish off with a sprinkle of chopped walnuts.

Vanilla Ice Cream

There is such a difference between ice cream that you make your self and the ones you buy at the supermarket. I could eat a whole liter of this ice cream if my increasingly growing stomach would´t stop me.

4 egg yolks

250ml full fat milk

250ml heavy cream

100g sugar

1 vanilla pod, sliced down the middle

Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring it slowly to the boil. Place the vanilla pod and the vanilla seeds into the milk and let it infuse for about 15 minutes.

In a bowl, beat and mix the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Carefully remove the vanilla pod from the infused milk. Pour the milk into the bowl with the eggs and stir together. Pour the mixture back into the pan and keep stirring on a low heat until the mixture thickens. Take aside and leave to cool.

Transfer the ice cream mixture to a ice cream maker and let the machine work for about 30 minutes.