Swiss Carrot Cake (Schweizer Rüblitorte)
Long time no see… In the last months pizzakurier bern
, there was a lot going on keeping me distracted from blogging. But: I am ending my hiatus with some Easter baking. This is a traditional carrot cake from our Swiss neighbors. It’s called Rüblitorte or Rueblitorte (if the little ü cannot be properly displayed), Rübli meaning carrots and Torte, well, cake or tarte. Do not worry, I did not forget the butter or oil in the ingredient list, it is kind of a sponge cake without fat save for the little bit coming from the egg yolks. The grated carrots provide for some good moisture in the cake, though.
If you prefer the cake gluten-free, replace the flour with the same amount of ground almonds and use three teaspoons of gluten-free baking powder.
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Swiss Carrot Cake (Schweizer Rüblitorte)
Ingredients (for a 9 inch / 24 cm form):
For the batter:
5 eggs puttygen download puttygen , separated into egg yolk and egg white
3/4 cup / 6.25 oz / 175 g fine sugar
lemon zest from 1 lemon
3/4 cup / 2.75 oz / 75 g all purpose flour
3 ½ cups / 10.5 oz / 300 g ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
a pinch of salt
12.5 oz / 350 g (about 4 medium) carrots, grated (I used a medium grater)
Some butter or cooking spray for greasing the spring form
For the icing:
2 cups / 9 oz / 250 g icing sugar/powdered sugar
lemon juice from one lemon
For the marzipan/almond paste carrots:
1/3 cup / 4.5 oz / 125 g marzipan/almond paste
1 teaspoon each red, yellow and green food coloring
1 tablespoon icing sugar
Preparation:
1.
Preheat oven to 360° F / 180° C (conventional oven).
2.
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar until well combined. Mix together all the dry batter ingredients (except for the carrots). Preferably in a kitchen machine (or by hand)
, add the dry batter ingredients (except for the carrots) to the egg yolk mixture and mix until well combined. Add the grated carrots and mix thoroughly.
3.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold under the batter.
4.
Put the batter into the well greased spring form and bake for about 45-50 min (or until a wooden stick picked into the cake comes out clean).
5.
As soon as the cake has cooled down, remove from the spring form and let it cool completely on a rack.
6.
For the icing, sift the icing sugar / powdered sugar into a small bowl. Little by little, add so much lemon juice to it that it forms like a “medium-thin batter” (if you used up all your lemon juice, just add a little bit of water). It’s hard to explain, but it has to be liquid enough to spread on its own on top of the cake and well cover it without having to smooth it out by hand with a spatula (you would see the marks in the icing), but solid enough to not completely run down the edges or get soaked into the cake. Put the rack with the cake on an old newspaper or so, because there usually will be some icing dripping off the cake. Beginning from the middle of the cake
, pour the icing over the cake, it should run towards the edges on its own; if not, tilt the rack a little bit in each direction.
7.
For the marzipan/almond paste carrots, divide the marzipan/almond paste into a 2/3 and a 1/3 part. Knead the red and yellow food coloring well into the 2/3 part and the green food coloring into the 1/3 part until it is evenly colored. If the marzipan/almond paste gets too liquid, add a little bit of sifted icing sugar. Divide the orange part into 12 equal pieces and form small carrots. Press the green part through a garlic press and add to the carrots as a kind of green bunch. Once the icing on the cake has set completely, put the carrots on top of the cake.
Can be served immediately, but some prefer the cake on its second or third day.