Cook and Drink

Today, April 27th, we celebrate the birthday ol King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Hip hip hurray!
The Dutch royal family is also known as ‘de Oranjes’, which is reflected in the use of the colour orange when referring to Dutch royalty. There is no link between the royal family and the colour. The ‘orange’ in their name refers to the French city of Orange, a Principality one of his ancestors inherited in 1544.
Over the years we prepared Orange Sabayon, Queen’s Soup, Orange and Almond Cake, Bouchée à la Reine, Orange Flan, Canard à l’Orange, Baba au Mandarine Napoléon and Orange Parfait on this day.

This year we prepare a Carrot Cake. Given its English origin we thought it would be best to use an English recipe as a starting point. What better cookbook to use than Harrods Book of Traditional English Cookery by Hilaire Walden! It includes recipes for dishes such Jugged Kippers, Rabbit in the Dairy and Dorset Apple Cake. Buy this wonderful book via the usual channels for a few euros or dollars.

Bake the cake 2 days before serving. Add the topping, transfer to the refrigerator and serve cold.

The recipe is for a 19 cm (7,5 inch) baking tin and the cake will serve 8 people.

What You Need

• Cake
  • 125 grams of Butter
  • 150 grams of light Brown Sugar
  • 3 Organic Eggs
  • 3 teaspoons of Orange Rind
  • 15 ml of Lemon Juice
  • 175 grams of Flour
  • 8 grams of Baking Powder
  • 35 grams of Ground White Almonds
  • 75 grams of chopped Walnuts
  • 50 grams of White Raisins
  • 250 grams of grated Carrot
• Topping
  • 200 grams of Soft Cheese
  • 1 teaspoon of Honey
  • 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice
  • 25 grams of chopped Walnuts
  • 45 grams of white Marzipan for the carrots
  • 10 grams of white Marzipan for the green part
  • Food colouring: Red, Yellow and Green

What You Do (Cake)

1. Preheat your oven to 180 °C or 350 °F, traditional
2. Coat a round cake tin with butter
3. Coarsely grind the almonds
4. Coarsely grind the walnuts
5. Sift flour and baking powder and combine
6. Soak the raisins for 10 minutes; discard the water
7. Grate the carrot
8. Grate the orange rind
9. Melt the butter until soft 
10. Combine butter and sugar until relatively fluffy
11. Combine flour, baking powder, chopped walnuts and almonds
12. Separate the eggs
13. Whisk the egg whites until stiff
14. Add the egg yolks to the butter and sugar mixture, combine
15. Add orange rind, raisins and lemon juice to the mixture, combine using a spoon
16. Add the combination of flour, baking powder and nuts to the mixture
17. Add carrots to the mixture and combine
18. Fold in the egg white
19. Transfer to the oven for 50 minutes
20. Leave to cool on a wire rack
21. Keeps well on room temperature for at least 2 days

What You Do (Topping)

1. Make 3 small orange balls
2. Press these into the shape of a carrot
3. Use a knife to make a few superficial slices
4. Roll out the green marzipan, cut out 3 circles and create the green part
5. Beat cheese, honey and lemon juice
6. Taste and adjust; we added extra lemon juice
7. Spread evenly over the cake
8. Sprinkle with walnuts
9. Decorate with three carrots
10. Once you’ve added the topping, store in the refrigerator