• Get Creative: Garnish is just a sliver of carrot with parsley as the carrot top.

• Make this recipe into cupcakes for Easter! That is what I am going to do along with a Create-your-Own Deviled Egg Bar for guests to make their own.

This is an impressive recipe because of the combination of the lime flavor and the moist carrot cake.  Either I dined with polite folks or they really liked this cake and wanted the recipe.  This sparked a conversation about cooks who don’t like to share their recipes.  I told them it was fine with me to share this carrot cake recipe because Jamie Oliver had shared it with me!

Jamie Oliver and Sunset Magazine are two that I trust for solid recipes that will succeed on the first try!

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing Recipe from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups light brown soft sugar
• 5 large free-range or organic eggs, separated
• zest and juice of 1 orange
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour, sifted
• 1 slightly heaped teaspoon baking powder
• 4oz shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a pinch of ground cloves
• a pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 10oz carrots, peeled and coarsely grated sea salt

For the lime mascarpone icing:

• 4oz mascarpone cheese
• 8oz full-fat cream cheese
• 1 scant cup powdered sugar, sifted
• zest and juice of 2 limes

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and line a 9 inch square cake pan or a round equivalent with wax paper. Beat the butter and sugar together by hand or in a food processor until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest and juice. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder, and add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices and grated carrot and mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them into the cake mix. Scoop the batter into the prepared cake and cook in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes until golden and risen. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a toothpick into it. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a bit longer, so put it back in the oven. Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out on to a rack and leave for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread generously over the top of the cake. Finish off with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts.

* For Cupcakes, you must seriously alter the baking time.  I did 10 minutes at 400F and then turned down the oven to 350F for about 10-12 minutes more.

I am lazy enough to not cancel a magazine subscription that I didn’t even order.   This month I was glad that I didn’t cancel it because I found this recipe in a Glamour Magazine of all places.  The recipe is from New York City’s Butter Lane Bakery.

On Serious Eats they describe the difference between two different icing types that they use @ Butter Lane Bakery. They make an American icing version and a French version.  This recipe is the Americano! What do you think?

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe!

Cupcakes:

1 ½ cups sugar

1 stick butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 ¼ cups banana, mashed

Preheat the oven to 350F.  In a mixer combine the sugar and softened butter.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and mix well.  Now combine all of the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowel.  Then add the dry ingredients to the sugar and butter mixture and then add the buttermilk and mix 2 minutes more.  Put cupcake liners into the muffin tins.  Fold in the mashed banana to the batter and then fill the tins to 2/3’s full.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar

1 stick softened butter, unsalted

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup peanut butter (the light colored creamy version is best)

3 tbsp milk

Blend these ingredients together in a mixer.  I used the “natural” peanut butter but it looked really dark in color and I think a jiffy version smooth peanut butter would have a much nicer cupcake color.