DALILA’S BLACK MAGIC CARROT CAKE
I basically just mixed 2 cakes into 1 and came up with this beauty. It is SERIOUSLY really good!
So this will make ALOT of cake. I halved the recipe to get 1 cake, so if you make the whole recipe you will get 2 cakes.
- Black Magic Cake:
- 230 g cake flour
- 70 g cacao
- 400 g castor sugar
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 230 ml buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 230 ml hot water
- 115 ml oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Carrot Cake:
- 360 g cake flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ a teaspoon salt
- 450 g sugar
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 230 ml oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 230 g peeled grated carrots
- 110 g raisins / pecan nuts
- 70 g shredded coconut
- 230 g crushed pineapple, drained
- Cream cheese icing:
- 575 g icing sugar
- 450 g cream cheese
- 115 g butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Chocolate Buttercream and Ganache:
- 200 g dark chocolate
- ⅔ cup cream
- 225 g butter
- ½ a cup cacao
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line 8 x 20 cm cake tins with grease-proof paper (obviously I don’t have 8, but you will have 8 layers for 2 cakes of 4 layers each)
Make chocolate cake:
Sift flour and cacao together. Add sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk to combine.
Make a well in the center and add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and coffee. Mix on low for 90 seconds. Pour evenly into 4 of the prepared baking tins.
Bake for about 35 min until a toothpick inserted into middle of cake comes out with just a crumb or 2.
Cool cakes in tins before turning out onto a wire rack, remove paper and cool completely.
Make Carrot cake:
Combine flour, bicarb of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl combine sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla and use a hand mixer to mix until pale yellow and fluffy about 4 to 5 min.
Using a whisk incorporate dry ingredients into wet mix.
Lastly fold in carrots, coconut, pineapple and nuts/raisins.
Divide batter into the prepared 4 baking tins. Bake for about 40 min until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool into for 10 min and then turn out onto a wire rack, remove paper and let cool completely.
Make cream cheese icing:
In a bowl beat together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy and we’ll mixed. Add Vanilla and icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
Lastly make chocolate icing and ganache:
Start with the ganache. Heat cream and 200 g chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted and smooth. Don’t overheat. It should be smooth and glossy. Let this come to room temp before proceeding.
Beat butter, cacao and half the icing sugar on medium for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to make sure all mixed.
Add remaining sugar, salt and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add HALF of the ganache mix to this buttercream mix and mix until combined and smooth.
Now to assemble:
Find 2 smaller round dishes/cups than your cake pan and use them to cut out 3 separate ring from each cake. Place back together like a jigsaw puzzle mixing the chocolate cake layers and carrot cake layers. Use some of the cream cheese icing and chocolate icing to make sure these pieces stick back together. You should now have 8 layers of chocolate cake mixed with carrot cake (I have added a picture so you can see what I mean) (or you could use just 2 carrot and 2 chocolate and freeze the rest of the cake for future use)
Make a 4 layer cake by placing one cake (outer ring chocolate) use cream cheese icing to sandwich with another layer (outer ring carrot cake), then another layer (outer ring chocolate) and last layer (outer ring carrot)
Ice with the chocolate butter cream and with the left over ganache make a drip around the edge of the cake and use the rest to top the cake. I made little carrots using white chocolate and food colouring. Use to decorate cake.
Long process but easy and SO with it!
Recipe and photos: Dalila Viljoen
