The idea for this cake started from a marzipan package I had in our kitchen cupboard for many months. I love marzipan, its texture and almondy flavor, but somehow I couldn’t figure out how to use it in a recipe. The basic way would be to cover a cake with it, but that sounded too banal, already seen too many times. I didn’t want the marzipan to be just a decoration, something that a cake could have spared, I wanted it to be the star of the recipe, at the very heart of it. Then the idea came to put in between layers a thin circle of marzipan, and it worked out magnificently! As I always put the taste before the aesthetic when I cook, I didn’t think that this cake would also be very pretty once sliced, because of the quantity of layer that the base + frosting + marzipan create: 14 in total!
The base is quite moist itself, so it really doesn’t need any liquid to help in that. Be sure to do the toothpick test (I explain you in the recipe what is it) to know for sure that the cake is cooked, because in my case, one cake needed some minutes more than the other, don’t ask me why!
P.S. This is a mini cake, only 4.5 inch of diameter. If you don’t have such small pans, with the same amount of ingredients you’ll be able to make one cake instead of two, that you can cut in half lengthwise, getting so a 2 layer cake. If you wish to make a bigger version of this 4 layer cake, you’ll need to double the amount of ingredients.
Yum
- 300 g grated carrots
- 70 g butter at room temperature
- 3 eggs
- 70 g caster sugar
- 15 ml olive oil
- 150 g flour (wheat or rice)
- ½ tsp vanilla sugar
- ¼ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 30 g butter at room temperature
- 100 ml heavy cream
- 60 g powder sugar
- 1 chamomile bag
- 200 g cream cheese
- 150 g marzipan
- Preheat the oven at 170°C.
- Beat the butter, the sugar and the eggs together until combined.
- Add the olive oil and the grated carrots and mix.
- Add little by little the sieved flour and stir.
- Add the vanilla sugar, the ginger, the baking powder and soda and mix well until the batter will be smooth.
- Place baking paper and grease the borders of two 4.5 inch (11,5 cm) springform pans and divide the batter into the two pans.
- Bake both cakes at the same time (they are so small that they fit together!) for 40 minutes. Check if the cakes are cooked by inserting a toothpick into the cake: if it will come out clean, the cake is cooked.*
- Open a chamomile bag and pour its content into a bowl, add heavy cream and combine gently the two ingredients. Let it set for about half an hour.
- Add butter, sugar and cream cheese and whip until the frosting will have a firm structure.
- Roll out the marzipan loaf with a rolling pin, dusting the surface with some powder sugar. Once the marzipan paste will be few millimeters thick, cut three circles using the springform pan to border the circles.
- Once the cakes will be cool, cut them in half lengthwise. Put the first layer of the base in a plate or stand and spread a thin layer of frosting, levelling it out. Place one circle of marzipan on the top and cover it with another thin layer of frosting.
- Repeat the procedure until the last layer and use the remaining frosting to cover the top and the sides of the cake.
Angela - Patisserie Makes Perfect
I love these towering mini cakes, they’re so stunning in their stature!
The flavours here look amazing, I really fancy a big slice of this!
Thais FK
I also love them! They are so cute and photogenic, without taking anything away from the taste!
chelsea
I have been making carrot cake for my kids birthday for upwards of 10 yrs. I was excited to try this as he mentioned loving a cake at camp with almond paste in the middle. Caveat here I did not have the 4.5 in pans, but still… I have just pulled out carrot cake pancakes out of my oven. There was no rise, what so ever to this batter. Interesting idea, but next time, I will stick to the Joy of Cooking recipe for the batter, although adding a layer of rolled out marzipan will likely be a goto in the future. Not sure if it makes a difference, but we are basically at sea level here in Seattle.