Mary Berry’s carrot cake with mascarpone topping is a popular cake that has a lovely addition of walnuts for a crunchy bite. Only taking about 15 minutes to prepare ahead of baking, the carrot cake is then baked in an oven for just under an hour, meaning you can get on with whatever else you would like to do in the meantime.
Equipment required for the carrot cake bake includes a round cake tin, non-stick baking parchment, a large mixing bowl, and an electric mixer. Additional baking must-haves include a fine skewer or toothpick, which can let you know when a bake is ready, and a palette knife.
Ingredients:
225g self-raising flour
Two teaspoons of baking powder
150g of light muscovado sugar
50g walnut pieces, chopped
100g carrots, coarsely grated
Two ripe bananas, mashed
Two eggs
150ml of sunflower oil
For the topping:
250g tub of mascarpone cheese
Two to three teaspoons vanilla extract
Two tablespoons of icing sugar, sifted
25g of walnut pieces, chopped
Method:
Lightly grease a 20cm deep round cake tin and line the base with a circle of non-stick baking parchment. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas four.
Measure all of the ingredients for the cake into a large bowl and mix well with an electric mixer. Turn the mixture into the prepared cake tin and gently level the surface.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 50 to 60 minutes, or until the cake is well risen, golden, and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. A fine skewer inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the tin for a couple of minutes, then loosen the sides of the cake from the tin with a small palette knife, turn the cake out, and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
For the topping:
Mix the mascarpone cheese in a small bowl with the vanilla extract and the sieved icing sugar. Spread evenly over the top of the cake and scatter the chopped walnuts on top.
Store in the refrigerator. The carrot cake needs to be stored in the refrigerator because of the mascarpone topping, which would melt otherwise.
