Ingredients
- 4 Tatayoyo peppers
- 170 ml sunflower oil
- 250 g light caster sugar
- 20 g maple syrup
- 4 eggs
- zest of 1 lemon
- 270 g flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp salt
- 75 g roasted almonds (coarsely chopped)
- 270 g grated carrot
- 1 packet of cream cheese (plain)
- 2 tbsp butter, at room temperature
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 75 g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
Author of this recipe
A delicious carrot cake with a twist. Are you familiar with the Tatayoyo pepper? It is a sweet orange pepper with a tropical flavour and hints of papaya. The aroma hits you as soon as you cut it open. And because it is so unlike a regular pepper, it is fun make something completely different with it. That’s why we used them when creating this tasty carrot cake.
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 175 ºC.
- First, peel the peppers as the skin can give out a bitter taste in the cake. Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Place the peppers in boiling water until the skin comes off. Let them cool and separate the skin fully from the flesh.
- Set aside 2 half peppers for garnish. Put the rest in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. This should be about 150g in weight.
- Mix the puree in a bowl together with the sunflower oil, sugar, maple syrup, eggs, and the lemon zest.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger powder, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt and then carefully mix this into the wet batter. Do not beat too long as this will affect the cake rising.
- Now stir the roasted almonds and the carrot through the batter with a spatula. Pour into a greased 24 cm round baking tin.
- Put the baking tin in the oven for 50 minutes. The cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the baking tin. Place on a cooling rack and allow the cake to cool completely.
Preparation icing and decoration:
- Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, mix in the lemon juice and the icing sugar and set aside in the fridge.
- Cut the remaining peppers into very thin strips. Put them in a saucepan with the maple syrup, a pinch of salt and 80 ml of water.
- Bring to a boil, simmer gently until almost boiled down and allow to cool.
- Ice the cake generously and decorate with the Tatayoyo strips.
