Easter Bunny’s Carrot Loaf Cake
Gently spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, this moist carrot cake looks adorable decorated with homemade marzipan carrots.
How long will it take?
1 hour 20 minutes
What’s the serving size?
Serves 6
What do I need?
For the cake
- 5 egg whites, divided
- Pinch of salt
- 5 egg yolks
- 150 g caster sugar
- 50 g brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150 g slivered almonds
- 50 g pistachios, roughly chopped
- 300 g grated carrots
- 4 tbsp plain flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cloves
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
For the icing
- 150 g icing sugar
- 2 ½ tbsp lemon juice
For the marzipan carrots
- 80 g marzipan almond paste
- Red food colouring
- Yellow food colouring
- Green food colouring
- 30 g pistachios, roughly chopped
How do I make it?
- Preheat oven to 190C.
- Grease and line a 35-centimetre-long loaf tin.
- Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. Set aside, reserving 1 heaped tablespoon of the mixture for the icing.
- Using an electric mixer, cream egg yolks, caster sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add carrots, almonds, and pistachios to the mixture and stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl mix together flour, cinnamon, ground cloves, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder.
- Pour dry ingredients into the carrot mixture, add lemon juice and mix well. Fold egg whites into the mixture and then place it into the prepared loaf tin.
- Bake for 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Make icing by adding icing sugar, reserved egg white and lemon juice to a bowl. Stir well and then spoon the icing over the cake.
- Divide the marzipan paste into 1 x 20 g piece and 1 x 60 g piece. Flatten each piece to make a disc shape. Add 1 drop green food colouring to the smaller piece. Using gloved hands, work the food colouring into the marzipan until the colour is incorporated. Set aside. Add 1 drop red and 1 drop yellow food colouring to the larger piece and work the food colouring into the marzipan.
- Divide the green marzipan into 8 equal sized pieces. Use your hands to shape each piece into a carrot top, then use a toothpick to make ridges to resemble leaves. Divide orange marzipan into 8 equal sized pieces. Use your hands to shape each piece into a carrot shape, then use a toothpick to make ridges along the sides of the carrots. To serve, arrange carrots and carrot tops on the cake and sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
