Nordic Carrot Cardamom Cake (and a sunken disaster)

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Carrot and Cardamom Cake || cityhippyfarmgirl I had four and a half hours before I had to get the kids to school. Surely plenty of time to get a cake baked and to be sitting cooling on the bench for when I got back, right?

Er, no.

It seems by getting up at 4.30am it gives you an increased sense of time security, that clearly wasn’t there. After jamming 21 ‘to do’ things into those morning hours, I simply ran out of time.

With time tick-tocking, the school bell never late and the cake clearly still not done. I decided I would have to leave it in the oven, turned off, but hoped the stoves residual heat would cook through any last of the gooey crumb. It had been baking for an extra 5-10 minutes already*, so surely that should be enough?

I get home hours later and enthusiastically reach into my oven to retrieve the cake and start icing it.

Not quite what I expected.

Not really what I expected at all. Sunk like I hadn’t sunk a cake since 1994.** Hmmm, what to do? The cake being still far from cooked through on the bottom, I decided to bake it again and see what would happen.

It seems cake miracles do happen, and it did get a little more height (than the mess pictured.) It was still sunken in the middle though, so what to do about that?

I was going to ice that cake, like I’d never iced before, that’s what I was going to do!

Covering the cakey crater with a vanilla mascarpone mixture***, I then carefully smoothed the tiny bit left over to the edges and sprinkled walnuts on for extra hiding of any problems.

Verdict?

Best cake I’d made in ages. Seriously, I wish all mistakes tasted that good.

Carrot and Cardamom Cake recipe can be found here, (coming from the new cook book The New Nordic.) *

The photo actually made it look taller than it was, a total height of 2cms on the sunken gooey bottom. ** I found the 200C too hot for my cake, use your judgement, and remember recipes are a guide, you know your oven best.

It also needed far longer than stated, but…I shouldn’t haven’t been squishing so many things into the morning. ***

The cream cheese and butter icing as stated in the recipe was substituted for a Vanilla Mascarpone number which is more the way our family roll. Carrot and Cardamom Cake || cityhippyfarmgirl

32 thoughts on “Nordic Carrot Cardamom Cake (and a sunken disaster)”

    • You know what I can’t even remember, I suspect it was a child that was the cause, of whom went back to sleep and I was left twiddling my thumbs wondering whether I should get on with the day. To get ahead on the whole list thing right?

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  8. This looks amazing! I am glad it turned out well- I have a problem with timing, too. 😦
    Anything with cardamom and mascarpone is wonderful in my book. And I love that you used white carrots!

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    • Heidi, it’s so good to see your name pop up. Long time no see, friend from across the oceans. And yes to white carrots! Pretty little things they are. I very rarely see them but my delivered vegetable box had been graced with them. Cake it was!

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  9. A girl after my own heart getting up nice and early (and trying to cram WAY too much into that time). I have problems with Brunhilda. She is bolshie at the best of times being a wood stove, but sometimes she just doesn’t want to play ball and I spend my cake baking time moving the cake gently from oven to oven as she plays up. I like cakes that are “sturdy” and that will take my manhandling. This looks just the ticket and you handled that sunken cake like a boss! You even used my trick of slathering on a HUGE amount of icing! Again, BOSS! Off to pilfer that scrumptious delight and pretend that I am standing in the Fjords (well not literally “in” but you get my drift) with a big hunk of this cake, a HUGE mug of tea, dressed like the Michelin man and with lungs full of that gorgeous fresh Nordic air. Try getting up at 3am. You can fit 1 and a half hours more of procrastination time in before you start to panic. You are welcome ;).

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    • Ms Narf, 4.30 is one thing but 3am? I’m not sure I’ve eaten enough sturdy cake to get me up at those sorts of times. Plus it’s damn cold at that time, and I don’t have the likes of Brunhilda to warm the ache of stiff bones. I could turn the heater on sure, but the noise of it would probably encourage small children out of from their beds and initiate the beginning of their day! Nope, nah uuh.

      As for icing like a boss. My grandmothers cooking advice was always, if you stuff up a dessert, cover it in cream. Not one for cream much, I held those words to the mascarpone 🙂

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      • Your grandmother would have been proud (and so would mine 😉 ). 3am starts with me ushering the dog from the couch to my warm spot in my bed and THEN feeding Brunhilda. I am starting to think that getting up at 3am is more about me having a cup of tea than anything else lately ;). It’s damned cold here but you would be amazed at how warm you get with a hot water bottle 😉

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  11. What are you doing getting up at half past four in the morning? It would be pitch black out there and seem like the middle of the night. I do appreciate it when bloggers show us something that didn’t turn out as expected – it really does give us all hope. And the end result just looks fabulous xx

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  13. Glad to hear someone else does the ‘turn the oven off as I dash out the door and hope’ manoeuvre! and well done on rescuing it…I’m a fan of the mascarpone topping too, (especially on carrot cake) though I called mine a glaze as it turned out way too runny to be icing 😉

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  17. Looks fantastic! I was recently baking an extra large cookie cake for an office party. Needless to say, my extra-large pan wasn’t large enough for the thing! What a mess it made! Turned out great in the end, though. 🙂

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