Autumn Vegetable Cake

Cake with autumn vegetables, spices and pecans. Topped with orange buttercream and candied carrot

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword Cake

Prep Time 1 30

Cook Time 35

Total Time 2 5

Servings

Calories 875kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Ingredients

For the carrot curls

200 g Caster sugar
200 ml Water
1 Medium sized, long carrot

For the sponge

300 g Self raising flour
175 g Plain wholemeal flour
300 g Light brown soft sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
3 tsp Mixed spice
400 ml Vegetable oil
6 Eggs large
1 Orange Zest and juice
20 g Fresh ginger grated
485 g Carrot, parsnip and sweet potato grated, see notes
140 g Pecans chopped

For the buttercream

350 g Butter or baking spread
700 g Icing sugar
1 Orange zest only
1 tsp Orange extract
2 tbsp Milk

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

For the candied carrot curls (optional)

Put the water and sugar into a pan, heat on low until the sugar is dissolved
Peel the skin from the carrot. Then peel long thin strips from the carrot, try and find a long straight carrot to get the best strips
Add the carrot strips to the pan and turn the heat up to medium, simmer for 15 minutes
Pre-heat your oven to 100C Fan/120C/225F/Gas Mark ¼, and prepare some lined baking trays and brush or spray them with a little vegetable oil
Carefully remove the carrot strips from the sugar water using tongs and lay them flat onto the baking trays
Bake for 30 minutes
Remove from the oven and quickly wrap the strips around the handle of a wooden spoon to create the curls, then slide off onto baking paper. You may need to grease the spoon with vegetable oil if it gets sticky
Leave the curls to dry out and harden for at least 1 hour
If you are making them in advance, store in an airtight container until ready to use. Do not allow them to touch as they may stick together

For the cake

Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark, and grease and line three 8 inch sandwich tins that are at least 2 inches deep
In a large bowl, stir together both flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice and light brown sugar
In another bowl mix the vegetable oil, eggs, orange zest and juice, and ginger together using a whisk
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and whisk well
Stir in the grated vegetables and chopped pecans
Divide the mixture evenly between the cake tins, I like to use scales for accuracy
Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and a thin skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove them from the tins and leave them to cool on wire cooling racks
To make the buttercream, mix together the butter and icing sugar, use an electric mixer for best results
When it starts to come together add the orange extract and milk, and whisk until smooth. Then stir in the orange zest. You can add a little more milk if it's too stiff
Level the sponges if they have domed at all with a serrated knife or a cake leveller
Stack the sponges up on your plate or cake stand, piping or spreading buttercream between each layer
When you get to the last layer, pipe larger rosettes all around the edge and smaller ones in the centre
Decorate with the carrot curls, some chopped pecans and some orange zest
Serve immediately, store leftovers in an airtight container in a cool place and eat within 3 days

Notes

I used 2 medium carrots, 2 medium parsnips and one small sweet potato. You can use any combination of the three vegetables, as long as you reach the total amount of 485g after peeling and grating them. You can also omit a type of veg if you like, for example use only carrot and parsnip, but again making sure you have the same quantity.

Mixed spice is a British spice blend containing Cinnamon, Coriander Seed, Nutmeg, Clove, Pimento, Ginger. If you can't get hold of it, use a Pumpkin Spice mix instead

For two layers the ingredients are: 200g self raising flour, 116g plain wholemeal flour, 200g light soft brown sugar, ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda, 2 tsp mixed spice, 266ml vegetable oil, 4 eggs (large), ½ orange zest and juice, 13g fresh ginger, 323g grated carrot/parsnip/sweet potato, 93g pecans

For one layer the ingredients are: 100g self raising flour, 58g plain wholemeal flour, 100g light soft brown sugar, ¼ tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tsp mixed spice, 133ml vegetable oil, 2 eggs (large), ¼ orange zest and juice, 6g fresh ginger, 161g grated carrot/parsnip/sweet potato, 46g pecans

Nutrition