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.
