Cardamom Carrot Cake with 2 Ingredient No-Cook Caramel

I have no time for raisins or pineapple in carrot cake.

Carrots should be the star, so I’m using double the amount. I love cardamom with carrot cake, and using the nuts on top so they get super toasted while baking.

Cream cheese has 50% moisture, so the sugar in a classic cream cheese frosting pulls all of the water out and the frosting ends up getting kinda slimy. I want fluffy. So, I’m opting for a whipped cream stabilized with cream cheese. You’ll get the tang, but it’s like a cloud.

In that cloud is a pool of delicious, complex tasting caramel that I make with just two ingredients–It’s not dates, condensed milk, dairy or oil. Sugar work can be scary. Let’s skip it and make a caramel with a whisk in 2 minutes.

Yield: 10-12

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Cardamom Carrot Cake with 2 Ingredient No-Cook Caramel

Ingredients

For the cake

• 2 1/2 cups grated carrots, about 2 large carrots
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup walnut or pecan pieces, optional

For the caramel

• 1/3 cup cashew butter
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• A dash of salt and vanilla extract, if you want

For the frosting

• 1 brick, 226g full fat cream cheese
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the garnish

• Carrot bows

Instructions

Make the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 8″ cake pan by lining it with parchment paper or coating liberally with oil.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add your carrots, sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, spices, salt and baking soda. Mix with a whisk until well combined. Sift flour overtop and fold with a spatula until just combined. This will look like a crazy amount of carrots, but it’s all good.
3. Pour your batter into the cake pan and flatten the mixture. Sprinkle nuts over top. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Allow to completely cool before frosting. Can be made a day ahead because it will stay moist.

Make the caramel

1. In a bowl, whisk together ingredients until homogenous and smooth, about 2 minutes. You want a thick but drizzle-able consistency. You can add more maple syrup to thin it out or more cashew butter to thicken it. Store in a jar in the fridge for up to 1 week.

For the frosting

1. In a mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream with a hand mixer until you have firm peaks. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, whip the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and homogeneous.
3. Add whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and whisk together in 2 additions. Don’t over mix, do it just until they are well incorporated. Keep in the fridge until ready, but it’s best made right before assembly.

Assemble

1. To your fully cooled cake, add spoonfuls of your frosting across the top. By gently pressing down with a spoon, create a shallow wide crater in the centre of the frosting so that the edges are taller and will hold the caramel in. This will look best the less you fuss.
2. Pour caramel into the centre. Garnish with carrot bows. Slice and serve.
3. Keep in the fridge covered for up to 3 days after being frosted