Antiquities, and a perfect carrot cake cheese cake for Easter sunday

First it was only carrot cake I somehow got obsessed with. All those tempting recipes around … thoroughly – and much to my friends, neighbours and colleagues delight – I did extensive research and testing. Cakes that passed my kitchen or caught my interest were

Hannahs carrot cake with cream cheese honey frosting (very carroty and nutty, adding an intense flavoured honey to the frosting is just wow!)

With a little touch of fancyness and probably only for culinary open minded eaters is Cynthias carrot cake with citrus goat cheese frosting.

In the end it was Debs carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting and Erica Leas variation on this that came very close to my idea of a perfect carrot cake.

Before talking about frosting and cream cheese let me say a few words about the non-cake-pictures in this post. They were made on a nearby antiquities and spring market last weekend. And of course I couldn’t keep with only taking photographs – I also found some as simple as beautiful enamel tableware that I just couldn’t resist. [The easter lamb mould you can see on the pictures is from my visit to this market two years ago.]

After weeks months of being mainly concerned with piles of work and some health issues, this market really brought me into easter mood.

But back to the cake. I love cream cheese frosting – as I love cheese cake. But I was always struggling with the frosting not become runny. If I followed the usually described order of preparation (beating butter and cream cheese, then adding sugar) the result was always a non-pipeable liquid something. After reading my way through the internet I found the solution to my problem: I now first combine butter and sugar to – only then – add cream cheese. There is some chemical explanation for this (liquid in the cream cheese that dissolves sugar, butter that binds the sugar), important for me: it works. Still I have no idea why the other way of preparation seams to work for so many other bakers…

In the end I didn’t make a cream cheese frosting for my carrot cake, but – I combined two classic easter and spring cake recipes with each other: carrot cake swirled with cheese cake. How rad is that?!

I thought I would be the first person to have such a weird idea – the internet taught me I am wrong. And yes: it’s such an awesome decadent cake – why should no other person have come across it?

This cake is born in heaven, divine! Tender and moist layers, sweet and tart, fresh and creamy, pretty looking … I am so sure that you will love it and that it will knock your easter guest’s socks off!

Some notes:

I never bake cakes in water bath, although it is recommended for cheese cakes if you don’t want the top to crack. I don’t mind. I like the uneven slightly browned top of this cake.

In this recipe I left out any nuts. But feel free to add some grounded or chopped hazelnuts, pecanuts, walnuts …

Contrary to this or this recipe, I didn’t use an extra layer of cream cheese frosting – additional to the cheese cake – this seamed just a bit too much for my European taste buds. But feel free to do so.

carrot cake cheese cake (∅ 20 cm baking pan)
[I made this cake in my ∅ 26 cm baking pan as well. I also turned out lovely, but flatter of course. Keep in mind to reduce the baking time for 5-10 minutes due to this.]

ingredients
carrot cake: 150 g flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 eggs, 100 g vegetable oil, 100 g sugar, 150 g grated carrots, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, dash of grounded nutmeg

cheese cake: 350 g cream cheese, 1 egg, 50 g sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, juice of ½ orange, ½ teaspoon dried orange zest

preparation
Preheat oven to 160°C. Wash and grate carrots. In a medium bowl beat eggs and sugar until creamy and light, add vegetable oil, dry ingredients and finally carrots.

In another bowl whisk together cream cheese, sugar, egg, flour and orange juice and zest.

Grease baking pan. To assemble the cake spread half of the carrot cake batter into the pan, the bottom should be completely covered. Now dollop half of the cheesecake batter on top of the carrot cake layer in large spoonfuls. Dollop the rest of the carrot cake batter on and around the spoonfuls of cheesecake batter. Finally spread the remaining cheesecake batter on top of all layers, carefully distribute it with a spatula and make sure it covers all.

Bake at 160°C for 60 minutes. The centre should be still slightly wobbly. If you find that the top of the cake browns to much, cover it with aluminium foil for the remaining baking time.

Put temperature off and leave cake in the oven for another 3o minutes. Then take it out and let cool completely on a wire rack. Cover with foil and refrigerate. Optionally dust with icing sugar right befor serving. Serve chilled.

This cake keeps at least 1 or 2 days. I guess I found it best on the second day.