Description
This Swiss Carrot Cake is very moist and bursts with carrots, nuts and spices (and a little bit of Kirsch). It is naturally dairy-free, very easy to make and it can be made into a loaf cake or cupcakes. The loaf keeps up to 4 days in the fridge. This is really the Best Swiss Carrot Cake!
Ingredients
Scale
Cake
- 5 egg yolks
- 5 egg whites
- 150 g white sugar
- 50 g light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- grated rind of one lemon (optional)
- 300 g grated almonds
- 300 g carrots
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of clove powder
- pinch of salt
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp Kirsch (see recipe notes)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Icing
- 150 g powdered sugar
- 1/2 egg white (reserved from the 5)
- 2 tbsp Kirsch (see recipe notes)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Cream Cheese frosting
- 115 g butter
- 225 g cream cheese
- 450–500 g powdered sugar (depending on how stiff you want it)
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat non-conventional/non-fan-assisted oven to 190°C (375°F). If using a conventional/fan-assisted oven, preheat to 170°C (340°F).
- Line and butter a 35 cm long loaf tin, or, if making a round cake, 24 cm in diameter. If making cupcakes, I suggest halving the recipe.
- Beat egg whites stiff with a pinch of salt. Set aside, reserving about half an egg white (roughly a heaped tablespoon) for the icing.
- Cream together egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, lemon rind and salt.
- Peel and grate the carrots, and add immediately along with the almonds to the egg-sugar mixture. Whilst creaming, stir together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Add the Kirsch and lemon juice, mix one more time and scrape down the edges.
- Fold in egg whites, and carefully pour into the cake tin or the cupcake cases. Bake the (loaf) cake for 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cupcakes need about 18-20 minutes. Before completely cooled, pour the icing over the cake.
Icing
- In a bowl, add the powdered sugar, 1/2 egg white, lemon juice and the Kirsch. Stir together and pour onto the cake. Decorate with marzipan carrots.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add the salt and powdered sugar. Start with 450 g, and if you want a stiffer frosting, add some more powdered sugar. Place dollops onto the cupcakes.
Notes
- You can substitute the Kirsch for lemon juice in the icing. You can simply leave it out in the cake.
- As written in my blog post, you can adjust the recipe to make more or less batter, so you can make a different size loaf cake or cupcakes. I suggest adjusting the recipe according to the amount of eggs.
- The icing calls for half an egg white. So, what I do is I remove about 1-2 tablespoons of the beaten egg whites, and keep that for later to make the icing.
- Be careful to not overbake the cupcakes (the loaf too, actually). The cupcakes need 15-20 minutes to bake at the most, the loaf needs 50-60 minutes, depending on the length of the loaf.
- Decorate how you please: I prefer the cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes and having the runnier Kirsch-Icing on the loaf. I also add some marzipan carrots on top.
