Traditional “gâteau aux noix du Périgord” (walnutcake from the Périgord)

Ingredients:

• 100 gr brown sugar
• 100 gr butter
• 150 gr walnuts
• 40 gr flour
• 3 eggs
• 20 cl of Rhum

Heat the oven to 150°C and grease the breadpan. Put the nuts in the blender with half of the sugar and mix until it almost looks like powder. In another bowl, mix the other half of the sugar with the butter. Now add the nut/sugar mixture. After mixing this, slowly add the eggs, flour and the rhum. Put in the oven for 40/50 minutes. When you take it out of the oven, it usually looks as if it is not finished. This does not matter, just let the cake cool down and it will dry. You can decorate the cake with some walnuts.

The cake should come out quite flat, let it cool down and bon appétit! 🙂

P.S. I always flip the cake upside down, because the bottom usually looks better 😉

Easy Carrot Cake Recipe

I found this recipe in “Bills Everyday Asian” by Bill Granger, but I gave it my own touch. The recipe is very easy and whenever I make this cake it always turns out great and people always seem to love it!

Ingredients for the cake
–       200 gr plain flour
–       3 teaspoons of baking powder
–       1 teaspoon of cinnamon
–       200 gr grated carrot
–       250 gr brown sugar
–       3 eggs
–       2,5 dl light flavoured oil, I used sunflower oil
–       100 gr raisins
–       100 gr chopped walnuts
–       zest of 1 orange

Ingredients for the icing
–       250 gr cream cheese
–       1 tablespoon of soft butter
–       1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
–       125 gr of icing sugar
–       For the topping some chopped hazelnuts, grilled almonds and coconut powder

Preheat your oven to 170 °C. Grease a springform – or a cake pan –with butter. Fill a bowl with the flour, baking powder and cinnamon, then mix well. In another bowl, mix the sugar and eggs then slowly add the oil but keep on whisking. After you’ve added the oil, you can mix it with the flour mixture. Now you can add the carrot, walnuts, raisins and orange zest. I have also added a few teaspoons of coconut powder here, but you can leave this part out if you don’t like coconut. Put the mixture in your pan and then in the oven for about 60/75 min. If you’re not sure if the cake mixture is ready, take an unflavoured toothpick or skewer and stick it into the cake. If you take it out and the cake doesn’t stick to the skewer, your cake is ready for icing!

It is very easy to make the icing, just make sure the cake is cooled down before you put the icing on. Mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and icing sugar together until you have a smooth mixture. Put the mixture on the cake and add the hazelnuts, almonds and coconut powder as a topping.

Enjoy your carrot cake and let me know how it came out and if you have any great suggestions! 🙂