There are three different cakes I hold near and dear to my heart and Carrot Cake is one of them. And not to brag but I do think this is one of the best recipes for carrot cake out there. What makes it a little bit more decadent you ask? Well it's the banana I use in the recipe. I also like the texture this cake has, it being riddled with big chunks of pecan nuts. Then comes the sweet tangy cream cheese frosting, not too much and not too little but just the right amount. I finish it off with some fresh fruits and a sprinkle of pecan nuts. I feel it's truly everything you could want in a cake, but then again that's just me!

So as the title of this blog mentions, we have our very first featured baker on Chef Dewet Visser. He is no ordinary baker, neither is he a professional baker, but instead he is my best friend, Craig Woolfson. He baked a cake intending to make his gran's 80th birthday a memorable one. He asked me for some assistance with what cake to bake and we finally decided that he should do the Carrot Cake that I had in my Booklet. He went out and got all the ingredients he needed, followed my step by step instructions, and recorded the process. So today I decided to share this with my fellow bakers and followers of my website. This was his first time baking a Carrot cake of this size so keep that in mind when you see the final product. With that being said, anyone who would like to feature on my website simply email me at chef@chefdewet.co.za and you could have the spotlight on Chef Dewet Visser for the day. 

Carrot Cake
Ingredients

• 187.5 ml Oil
  
• 2 Eggs
  
• 187.5 ml Castor Sugar
  
• 100 ml Pecan Nuts (You can use any nut you prefer really, I still want to try it out with Pistachios) 
  
• 375 ml Plain Flour
  
• 5 ml Vanilla Extract
  
• 5 ml Baking Powder
  
• 5 ml Bicarbonate of Soda 
  
• 2 ml Salt
  
• 2 ml Mixed Spices
  
• 5 ml Cinnamon
  
• 2 ml Nutmeg
  
• 125 ml Banana
  
• 250 ml Fine Grated Carrots
  

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160oC/320oF.
2. Place the oil, eggs, and vanilla essence into a mixing bowl and mix well until you have a light, thick consistency.
3. Add in all your dry ingredients (Including the nuts) which you need to sift at least once.
4. Mix until everything is well incorporated.
5. Next add in your carrots and bananas, giving it another good mix.
5. Grease your cake pan, adding silicon paper to the bottom, and finally add your mixture. Place into your preheated oven of 160oC/320oF for 30-35 minutes. It should have a nice golden top once complete.
6. Once out of the oven, allow to cool and finally place into the fridge while you prepare your frosting.

White Chocolate & Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 230 g Sugar
  
• 90 g Water
  
• 5 ml Lemon Juice
  
• 150 g Egg Whites
  
• 120 g Castor Sugar
  
• 250 g Soft Butter
  
• 250 g Cream Cheese (Unsalted) 
  
• 500 g White Chocolate
  
• Zest of 1 Orange
  

Method 

1. Place the larger amount of sugar, water and lemon juice into a pot and bring to the boil. Continue to boil until the syrup is at 114 - 116oC/237.5 - 240.8oF (This is known as soft ball stage).
2. Place your white chocolate over a bain-marie to melt. The water should not be boiling too rapidly but instead just simmering to create steam (If its too hot the chocolate can burn and you wont be able to use it! Also don't move it around too much just stir every now and then).
3. While waiting for your stock syrup to reach soft ball stage whip up your egg whites. When you reach medium peak stage start to add in the smaller amount of sugar (It must be castor sugar), adding it 1 teaspoon at a time while whisking until you reach stiff peak stage.
4. Once syrup is at soft ball stage start to pour at a slow steady rate into your mixing bowl with the meringues, whisking the entire time. The end result should be a glossy meringue with stiff peaks (This is known as a boiled meringue or Italian Meringue).
5. Remove the meringue from the mixing bowl and place soft butter and the zest into a bowl and mix until pale in colour.
6. Next add your cream cheese and follow by pouring your melted chocolate into the bowl with the butter. Whisk well (Your chocolate should not be straight off the bain-marie, it should rest for at least 1 minute before being added).
7. Now adding 1/3 at a time, fold the mixture into your Italian Meringue to create the final product.
8. Allow to rest in the fridge for 5 minutes and then you're ready to frost your cake!


Edited by
Monique Boaventura

Transfer paste is a paste consisting of four simple ingredients and the coloring or flavouring of your choice. You are able to either pipe different design onto silicon paper with a piping bag. Or you can simply spread the paste onto the whole piece of silicon paper and create patterns but removing the paste with a scraper. The only limitation this great paste has, is the limitations of your imagination and artistic ability. As you might have seen with my previous post of the Japoniase I created a green pattern on the outside of the meringue. The way I managed to do this was by simply spreading the paste on the silicon paper and then using the back of a spoon and scraped off the extra paste. I also used macha to not only flavour the paste but also give it that stunning green color. 

Japonaise, the first thing that might come to mind is whether its origins is based from Japan. It would be a good guess as "Japonaise" in French does mean "Japan" or "From Japan". But in this case there is no direct connection between this Meringue and Japan. So I decided to play around with this confusing yet interesting meringue and made it more Japanese. The way this idea come about was when I was asked to come up with new desserts for the menu at work. As I am working in a Japanese Restaurant I remembered this meringue from back in college. I think it stood out too me because I also first though it would have come from Japan or at least have some sort of Japanese history behind it. At first there was only one popular Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate, matcha. Matcha is the Japanese name for finely milled green tea leafs which have recently exploded into a huge hype, similar to that of Red Velvet. 

The taste of good quality macha for me would be similar to that of seaweed or rather you would pick up some sort of "ocean taste" or "fishy taste" as some people say. This is what we who believe in the term umami could call umami. The meaning of umami when all your taste sensations are stimulated at the same time. This includes sweet, sour, bitter and salt

The other truly Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate is know as Anko, which is Azuki beans (red beans) which have been cooked till soft and then pureed. It is then sweetened and used in many traditional Japanese pastries. The way I would incorporate this unique flavour into my dessert is simple. I would start by making my own anko, this way you can control the sweetness and don't have to worry about it being over or under the desired sweetness. I would then incorporate it into a Diplomat Cream. Diplomat cream is the combination of whipped cream and creme Pastissiere. This would give you a good smooth and light texture which would go well with the slightly crunchy meringue. I have yet to experiment with this as I have not yet had the opportunity. 
So now that you know a bit more about Japonaise and the two major ingredients in Japanese pastry world, Im now going to give you the Recipe for Japonaise. Once I have the chance to try the filling I will then also post that recipe, but for now I will just provide you with my first filling attempt. 

When you work with some recipes you might notice that they sometimes tell you to bring your sugar to a soft ball stage for an Italian Meringue, or a Hard Crack stage for dipping fruit in to give it a glistening coat of sugar. Yet sometimes they don't include the temperatures to which you need to boil the sugar to in order to getit to that stage. Well now all you need to do is refer back to my website. This information will be available under Culinary Glossary & Ingredients and then Sugar. This will also give you a few uses for some of the different stages of boiling, so if you would like to play around making sugar Angel Hair, now you know to which temperature you need to take your sugar. Also just remember when you work with sugar it retains heat very well and will continue to cook even once its been removed from the heat, so you have to anticipate a minute ahead of time, or place it on a cold surface straight away other wise it will over cook. 
Please be very careful when working with sugar, its not nice having a lump of blistering hot sugar fall on you! 

Boiling Stages

1. Strong Thread: 104°C - Glaze for sugared fruits.
   
2. Blow: 110°C (‘Physical test’ - Twist wire into a loop shape, dip into solution, blow, long bubble will appear)
3. Soft Ball: 116°C (‘Physical test’ – Dip teaspoon into cold water, then into boiling syrup, remove a little bit of sugar syrup, return to cold water, form a softball.)
4. Hard Ball: 128°C (‘Physical test’ - Same as soft ball however sugar will form a hard ball)
5. Soft Crack: 138°C (‘Physical test’ – Sugar will slightly crack once cooled)
6. Crack: 145°C (‘Physical test’ – Sugar will break cleanly once cooled) Uses: Sugar Ribbons, Blowing Sugar, Spun Sugar.
7. Hard Crack:  149°C (‘Physical test' – Sugar will break cleanly if bitten between teeth and should not adhere to them if correctly cooked) Uses: Pulled Sugar, Rock Sugar, Straw Sugar and Fruit Glaze.
8. Caramel:  175°C - Changes colour to caramel.
9. Black Jack: 179° C - Sugar is burnt

Edited by: Monique Boaventura

There are three different cakes I hold near and dear to my hear and carrot cake is one of those. And not to brag, but I do think this is one of the best recipes for carrot cake out there. What makes it that little bit more decadent you may ask, well its the banana I use in the recipe. I also just like the texture this cake has with big chunks of pecan nuts riddling the cake. Then comes the sweet tangy cream cheese frosting, not to much and not to little but just the right amount. Finished of with some fresh fruits and a sprinkle of pecan nuts. It's truly in my opinion everything you could want in a cake, but then again that's just me! 

Ingredients 

• 187.5 ml oil 
• 2 eggs
• 187.5 ml caster sugar
• 100ml pecan nuts (you can really use any nut you prefer, still want to try it out with pistachios)
• 375 ml plain flour
• 5ml vanilla extract
• 5ml baking powder
• 5ml bicarbonate of soda
• 2ml salt
• 2ml mixed spices
• 5ml cinnamon
• 2ml nutmeg
• 125ml banana 
• 250 ml fine grated carrots 

Method : preheat oven to 160C/320F

1. Place the oil, eggs, vanilla and eggs into mixing bowl and mix well till you have a thick light consistency.
2. Now add in all of your dry ingredients( includes nuts) which you need to sift at least once.
3. Mix till till everything is well incorporated
4. Now you can add in your carrots and bananas, give it another good mix 
5. Grease your cake pan with silicon paper on the bottom, then place into your preheated oven of 160C/320F for 30-35 minutes, it should have a nice golden top. 
6.  Once out of the oven allow to cool and then place into fridge while you prepare your frosting 

Ingredients for Frosting 

• 230 g sugar 
• 90g water 
• 5ml lemon juice 
• 150g egg whites 
• 120g caster sugar 
• 250g soft butter 
• 250g cream cheese (unsalted) 
• 500g white chocolate 
• zest of one orange 

Method 

1. Place the large amount of sugar, water and lemon juice into a pot and bring to the boil, continue to boil till the syrup is at 114-116C/237.5-240.8F ( this is known as soft ball stage) 
2. Place your white chocolate over a bain marie to melt, water should not be boiling to rapidly but just be simmering to create steam. ( if its too hot the chocolate can burn and you wont be able to use it! Also don't move it around too much, just stir every now and then) 
3. While waiting for your stock syrup to reach soft ball stage whip up your egg whites, when you reach medium peak stage start to add in the smaller amount of sugar ( it must be caster sugar) 1 tsp at a time while whisking till you reach stiff peak stage. 
4. Once syrup is at soft ball stage, start to pour it in at a slow steady rate into your mixing bowl with the meringues while mixing at the same time. End result should be a glossy meringue with stiff peaks. ( this is known as a boiled meringue or Italian Meringue) 
5. Remove the meringue from the mixing bowl and place soft butter and zest into bowl and mix till pale in colour. 
6. Now add you cream cheese and  pour your melted chocolate into the bowl with the butter and whisk well. ( your chocolate should not be straight of f the bain marie into the butter, it should have been off for at least 1 minute) 
7. Now 1/3 at a time fold in your Italian Meringue to create the final product. 
8. Allow to rest in the fridge for 5 minutes then your ready to frost your cake!