Spiced Carrot And Almond Cake

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 150 g self-raising flour
• 225 g carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 ginger, grated
• 1 pinch clove
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 135 g light brown sugar
• 120 ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
• orange
• 200 g mascarpone
• 50 g sultana
• 1 /2 tsp baking powder
• 1 /4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 50 g almond
• 50 g walnut, roughly chopped

Method

1. Tip the sultanas into a small bowl with the zest and juice of the orange — hold back a teaspoon of zest for the topping. Leave to plump for an hour. The sultanas drink up the orange juice and turn jammy in the sponge instead of dry little pebbles.
2. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan. Grease a 1kg loaf tin with a little sunflower oil and line with baking parchment, leaving an overhang on the long sides — that's your handle for lifting the cake out later.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg into a large bowl. The pinch of salt isn't optional — it lifts the warm spices and stops the sponge tasting flat. Stir through the ground almonds, chopped walnuts and grated ginger.
4. In a second bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar and eggs hard for 2–3 minutes, until the mix is pale, thick and slightly foamy on top. This is where the lift comes from — no air in now means a dense cake later.
5. Fold the dry mix into the wet in two goes, then add the grated carrots and the soaked sultanas with any orange juice still in the bowl — that liquid is pure flavour, don't waste it. Stir gently until just combined. Overworked batter equals a tight, rubbery crumb.
6. Scrape into the prepared tin, level the top, and bake for 55–60 minutes until deeply golden, springy in the middle, and a skewer comes out clean. If it's colouring too fast at the 40-minute mark, drape a piece of foil loosely over the top.
7. Let the cake settle in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift it out by the parchment and cool completely on a wire rack. Don't ice it warm — the mascarpone will slide straight off.
8. While it cools, toast the flaked almonds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 2–3 minutes, shaking often, until golden and fragrant. Tip them onto a cold plate the second they're done — left in the hot pan they'll catch and turn bitter in seconds.
9. Beat the mascarpone with the sifted icing sugar and the reserved orange zest until just smooth and spreadable. Taste it — you want enough sweetness to balance the tang, with the orange singing through. Stop the moment it comes together; mascarpone splits and goes grainy if you push it.
10. Plate the cooled cake, swoosh the mascarpone topping over the top in thick soft waves, scatter generously with the toasted flaked almonds, and finish with a final pinch of bright orange zest before slicing into thick wedges.