I first saw this Carrot Cake Roll on La Table De Nana (one of my favourite spaces) back in July of this year.
It looked fabulous, but then everything she makes looks fabulous. Monique is such a talented lady in so very many ways.
As recipes go, she had purloined it from French at Isa's, but also gave a link to an English version to be found here.
It is a fabulous cake in any language.
Carrot cake is my husband's favourite kind of cake. As soon as I saw Moniques, I had in mind to make this for him and that's just what I did today. It only took me two months to get to it, haha.
And then I had to search and search for her photo of it so I could find the recipe. Note to self: from now on pin what you want to make. Just don't take it for granted that you can easily find it again!
So after much searching I found it again and set out to make it for my husband. I used the English version and adapted it a tiny bit.
I have incuded the recipe in both linear and metric measures.
Its a very easy cake to make. There is no fat in the batter, unless you count the eggs. I used large free range eggs. The size had not been specified, but large free range worked perfectly.
There is rather a lot of sugar however . . . almost as much sugar as flour. I am not sure if you could cut that down or not.
My filling didn't turn out as solid as the original recipe did. I think that is because of the difference in cream cheese between North America and over here in the UK.
Our has a lot more liquid in it. Not sure how I can fix that either . . . but as far as taste went, it didn't really matter too much.
Crack the eggs into bowl and beat well for about 5 minutes until thick and creamy. They should get lighter in colour. Beat in the sugar, salt and vanilla. Sift the flour and spices together. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Stir this into the egg mixture to combine. Stir in the carrots. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it to completely cover and fill to the edges.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until just done. The top should spring back when lightly touched, but it should not have browned too much.
While the cake is baking place a large cotton tea towel on a flat surface and dust with icing sugar. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, carefully invert it over the icing sugar dusted tea towel. Carefully remove the foil. (If you have sprayed it generously, this won't be a problem) Starting from a short end, fold a bit of the end of the tea towel over the end of the cake and the roll it up tightly in the towel. Leave to cool completely.
To make the filling beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla.
When the cake is completely cold, carefully unroll and spread the filling evenly over top. Re-roll. Refrigerate for about an hour to firm it up. Place onto a decorative plate, dust with icing sugar, place toasted walnut halves decoratively on top and serve. Cut into slices to serve.
Store in the refrigerator. You can freeze the finished cake, wrapped tightly in cling film, for up to one month.
This made the perfect cake to celebrate the beginning of Autumn and the weekend.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I love carrot cake Marie! That's one thing I have never made is a roll cake. I think I need to remedy that soon. This looks sooo good!
ReplyDeleteThis was my first time baking it as a roll also Jan, but it was so easy to do. I highly recommend! It is delicious! xo
DeleteI buy my shelled walnuts in a 2 lb. or larger bag and bag them in 1 cup measures for the freezer. When I need to chop them for a recipe I take the flat side of my meat clever or my small cast iron pan and pot them a good one, a couple of times, while still in the bag and they are good to go for baking!
ReplyDeleteYour cake looks delicious. After 51 years of marriage and baking, I have decided to try my hand at a rolled cake this year!!! I was thinking about your cream cheese being more watery than what we have here in the states....if you placed your cream cheese in coffee filters and weighted it down for a while it may help reduce the amount of liquid in it. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sharon! I will give that a go. I hope you will make this. So long as you keep it rolled up until it is completely cold, you should not have any problem. Dusting the tea towel generously with the sugar is really important. It will help prevent the cake from sticking to the tea towel. Let me know how you get on! xo
Delete