I was at a girlfriends house recently & I was browsing through her vast collection of cookbooks.  I noted that we both had Neil Perry’s cookbook ‘Good Food’.  My friend then told me about an amazing cake from his book.  It’s a carrot & almond cake & as I read the recipe, I noticed ingredients like ground nuts, ground biscuits & whipped egg whites.  Of course I had a light bulb moment & thought, hello, Thermomix!  I made the cake a week later & served it dusted with a generous amount of icing sugar.  It was lovely & of course very easy to make in my Thermomix.    As I was eating it though, I thought it would be even better with some chocolate, so here’s where I’ve tweaked the recipe, along with converting it to Thermomix method.  I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do!

Ingredients:

180g almonds
100g walnuts
230g caster sugar
130g Savoiardi (sponge finger) biscuits
10g baking powder
5 eggs, separated
1 large carrot
15g Grand Marnier or Cointreau
zest of 1 orange, microplaned/grated
1 qty chocolate ganache – 100g dark chocolate & 80g full fat (whipping) cream

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (fan forced), lightly grease a round cake tin, then line base & sides with baking paper.
2) Place nuts, sugar, biscuits & baking paper in TM bowl, grind 10-15 seconds/speed 9. Set aside in a large mixing bowl.
3) Without cleaning TM bowl, add carrot, chop 5 seconds/speed 6. Add Grand Marnier, egg yolks & grated zest, mix 10 seconds/speed 3. Add this to the crumb mixture in the mixing bowl & mix until all ingredients are moistened & well combined.
4) In a clean TM bowl, insert Butterfly into bowl & add egg whites. Whip for 3.5 minutes/speed 3.5

5) Gently fold whipped egg whites into the cake mixture in 3 batches. Pour into prepared cake tin & bake for 1 hour. When it’s cooked, the top of the centre of the cake needs to feel quite firm to touch.
6) Allow the cake to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before removing & cooling on a wire rack. If time allows, let cake cool completely in the tin. You can even leave in the tin overnight covered with glad wrap.  To serve the cake, the top of the cake becomes the bottom, so the bottom of the cake is now the top & flat.

7) To make the ganache, place chocolate pieces into TM bowl & grate 10 seconds/speed 8.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
8) Add cream, melt 3 minutes/50 degrees/speed 3.
9) Working quickly, pour ganache over the cake & gently smooth up to the edges of the cake.  Very gently give the ganache a push over the edge of the cake, so the chocolate drizzles down the sides.  This must be down quickly though, as the ganache will thicker as it cools.

Notes:

I had no idea what Savoiardi biscuits were, but I found them in Coles with the sweet biscuits.

It’s always best to line your tin with baking paper on the base & sides, even if your tin is non stick.  It will give you a much more professional looking cake once it’s cooked, cooled & removed from the tin.