Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Frosting

I ran 8 kilometres this morning. I ran it knowing that this cake was at the end of it!


Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Frosting
from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie

For the Cake:
285g unsalted butter, softened
285g light brown soft sugar
5 large eggs, separated
zest and juice of 1 orange
170g self-raising flour, sifted
1 slightly heaped teaspoon baking powder
115g ground almonds
 115g shelled walnuts, chopped
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
285g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
sea salt

For the Lime Mascarpone Frosting:
115g mascarpone
225g full-fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
zest and juice of 2 limes

For the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 22cm square cake pan baking paper. Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest and juice. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder, and add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices and grated carrot and mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them into the cake mix. Scoop the batter into the prepared cake pan and cook in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes until golden and risen. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a toothpick into it. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky, it needs a bit longer, so put it back in the oven. Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out on to a rack and rest for at least an hour.

For the Frosting:
Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread generously over the top of the cake.