Wednesday 24 March 2010

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.

Tuesday 9 March 2010

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.