Super Moist Carrot & Honeycomb Crunch Cake
With Gingery Cream Cheese Icing
DIFFICULTY: Medium
PREP + COOK TIME: 4-5 Hours
Ingredients
✴
Ingredients ✴
Carrot & Pecan Cake:
2 cups plain flour
½ cup ground almonds
2 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp each baking soda, cinnamon & ground ginger3 medium carrots, grated (roughly 350g)
½ cup each plain unsweetened yogurt & full-fat milk
4 large eggs
1 cup caster sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 cup canola or neutral oil
½ cup roasted pecans, roughly chopped
Honeycomb Crunch:
1 ½ cups caster sugar
4 Tbsp Me Today Manuka Honey
1 tablespoon baking soda, sieved
Ginger Cream Cheese Icing:
1 ½ cups icing sugar
100g butter, softened
2 Tbsp Me Today Manuka Honey
2 tsp each vanilla bean paste & ground ginger
500g cream cheese
Directions
✴
Directions ✴
Preheat your oven to 170°C. Grease and line two 20cm cake tins with baking paper (see tip).
Make carrot cake: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, ground almonds, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and ½ tsp salt. Set aside. Grate carrots and add to a separate bowl along with yogurt and milk. Mix together and set aside. Add eggs, both sugars and vanilla to a large bowl. Using hand-held electric beaters, beat on high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add carrot yogurt mixture and oil and beat again, until combined. Add flour mixture and pecans and beat again on low speed, until just combined. Divide batter evenly between the two cake tins. Bake on the lower middle oven rack for about 35-40 minutes, or until golden and cooked through (see tip). A skewer inserted should come out clean with a few moist crumbs. Set aside to cool in the tins for about 15 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make honeycomb: Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Sieve baking soda to remove any lumps. Combine sugar, honey, and ¼ cup water in a large, heavy-based pot. Place over medium-low heat and stir, until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook without stirring, occasionally swirling the pan, until sugar turns a golden amber colour. Working quickly, add the baking soda and ½ tsp salt and whisk quickly to just combine the baking soda. Immediately pour the mixture over the prepared baking tray (do not spread it out, it will ruin the texture). Let it sit undisturbed, until cooled and set. Break honeycomb up into small chunks and set aside in an airtight container, until ready to use.
Make icing: Add icing sugar, butter, honey, vanilla and ground ginger to a large bowl. Using hand-held electric beaters, beat together on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale and creamy. Add cream cheese and beat again for 1 minute, until combined and smooth. Set aside until ready to use.
Assemble cake: Trim the domed top off the cakes with a large serrated knife, to create a flat surface. Remove baking paper. Place one of the cakes onto a serving plate. Spoon about a third of the icing on top and spread out into an even layer. Sprinkle over a handful of crushed honeycomb. Place the second cake on top and press down lightly to sandwich the layers together. Spread the remaining icing around the outside of the cake, creating swoops and swirls in the icing as you go. Press some honeycomb around the bottom of the cake, using a pallet knife to push it up into the icing. Scatter the top of the cake with a few handfuls of honeycomb (you will have some honeycomb left over). Decorate with edible flowers, if desired.
Tip* if your cake tins are larger than 20cm, they will cook faster as the batter will be spread thinner. So, reduce the cook time by about 10 minutes and test them for doneness.