Ingredients for the cake:
235g Sunflower seed oil
100g yogurt
4 whole eggs
265g flour
1tsp baking powder
335g castor suger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground cardomom
pinch of ground clove
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 large parsnip / about 250g
Juice of 1 orange
Butter & flour for lining your 2 cake tins.
Method:
Pre heat your oven to 170°c and pre line 2 ''8inch cake tins'' with the butter and flour for later on.
Note: I like to cut a disk of grease proof paper and lay it on the base of my tins it helps to get the cakes out later on with no dramas.
In a large mixing bowl or stand up mixer bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, yogurt and oil until pale and fluffy with an electric beater or stand mixer.
Take a large parsnip and grate it with a box grater. Then add it to the wet mix.
In a seperate bowl add your spices and baking powder to the flour and mix until evenly combined.
Take your dry mix and sift info the wet mix. Then mix it all well for about 30 seconds, making sure you scrape the sides as you go so its all incorporated evenly.
Divide the cake batter into 2 pre-greased cake tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until cooked all the way through.
Once cooked take them out of the oven and squeeze the juice of 1 orange on both cakes and then leave to cool completely before decorating. While waiting for them to cool get started on the garnishes.
Orange cream:
400g whipping cream
250g cream cheese
zest and juice of 2 oranges
pinch salt
2tbs icing sugar
Method:
In a mixer, whip up the whipping cream to soft peaks. Then add your cream cheese, zest and juice of the oranges, sugar and salt. Whip again until all incorporated and form semi firm peaks.
Salted honey candied walnuts
100g walnuts
1 big table spoon honey
Good pinch of salt
Method:
Pre heat a fry pan to a medium high heat and add all the ingredients stirring the nuts to avoid any burning.
As the nuts start to brown and the honey starts to caramelize take them off the heat and pour them out on some non stick parchment paper to cool down. Do not touch them as they are very hot.
They will harden up as they cool down.
Candied orange zest
2 oranges
200g sugar
200g water
200g water to be boiled and drained 3 times
Method:
Bring a small saucepan of water to boil. Meanwhile, using a vegetable peeler, peel wide strips of zest and then use a knife to slice into thin strips.
Boil zest for a couple of minutes. Then drain through a fine strainer, repeat this 3 times.
Note: This gets rid of all the bitterness found in the zest.
Then set blanched zest aside.
Put sugar and water in pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add blanched orange zest, cover, and simmer 5 minutes.
After that it should look glazed and slightly sticky. Leave to cool.
To assemble the cake:
Throw it all together and hope for the best... I'm joking. lol.
Get yourself a large plate or cake stand whatever your going to serve the cake on.
To put the cake together, use a large serrated knife to remove any puffage or dome shape ''if any'' from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. Place the first cake on the plate and spread about half the frosting evenly on top of the cake. Then add the second layer of cake on top. Top the cake with the remaining cream. I like to use a piping bag and pipe little mounds around the whole surface of the cake. Take some of your candied zest and walnuts and scatter them on top of the cake as you like.
I like to garnish the cake with some chopped white chocolate, dark chocolate and even some dill leaves. There is a lot going on, however all these tastes work really well together and make a pretty tasty cake.
Enjoy Xx