Rüeblitorte (Carrot Cake)

“Rüeblitorte” or carrot cake is made all over the world, but the Swiss version of it is a little different. Instead of adding different types of chopped nuts and sultanas into the cake batter, the Swiss keep the batter simple and instead go all out with the cuteness of their marzipan carrot decorations (which in Switzerland can be bought ready-made at any conventional supermarket). To make this cake vegan, I replaced the eggs with flax eggs, olive oil and aquafaba. This carrot cake is kept in the fridge and does not dry out at all. It’s a really moist and delicious cake that tastes even better the next day.

Ingredients

Cake (make a day ahead)

• 250g raw sugar
• 2 flax eggs (2tbsp flax meal + 6 tbsp water, mix and leave aside for 5min)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• juice from ½ lemon
• zest from 1 lemon
• ½ vanilla essence
• 250g raw carrots, finely grated
• 250g almond meal
• 100g white unbleached flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 10 tbsp aquafaba (the water from a can of unsalted chickpeas)
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar

Glaze

• 200g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Rüebli

• 100-150g Marzipan
• Yellow food colouring
• Red food colouring
• Blue food colouring

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180° (AGA: baking oven) and line baking paper on the bottom of a large round cake tin. Grease the sides of the cake tin to ensure that the cake won’t stick when it comes out of the oven.

2. In a big bowl add the sugar, olive oil, flax egg, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla essence. Using an electric mixer on high speed, blend until creamy and light.

3. Add the grated carrots, almond meal, flour, salt and baking powder and mix on a slow speed or with a spatula.

4. In a separate bowl, add aquafaba and cream of tartar and whip on high speed with a clean mixer until the aquafaba forms stiff peaks. It should have a similar look and feel to whipped eggwhites.

5. Once the aquafaba has been whipped, gently fold into the cake mixture with a spatula. Try to keep as much air and lightness to the batter as possible by mixing only until it has just combined. Do not over-mix as the aquafaba can be a little more delicate than eggwhites.

6. Pour the batter into the greased cake tin and bake it for one hour at 180°. To check if the cake is done, insert a baking needle or skewer. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. The cake should also bounce back a little to the touch and be pulling inwards from the edges of the tin.

7. After the cake has cooled completely, put it in the fridge to rest for a while. It can be decorated and served immediately however this recipe tastes best from the second day onwards because the flavours continue to develop in the fridge and it will become even more moist and delicious.

8. To make the marzipan carrots, add a little more than ¾ of the marzipan to a bowl together with a drop of yellow and a drop of red food colouring. Knead the marzipan and adjust the colouring if necessary until you’re happy with the orange colour.

9. To a separate bowl, add the remaining marzipan together with a drop of yellow and a drop of blue food colouring and knead until the marzipan turns an even bright green colour.

10. To form the carrots, roll the orange marzipan into a carrot shape on a surface dusted with icing sugar and add a small roll of green marzipan to decorate the top end.

11. To make the glaze, add the icing sugar and lemon juice to a bowl and mix thoroughly until it forms a smooth, shiny icing. If it is too dry, carefully add more lemon juice but be careful not to thin out the mixture too much

12. Pour the glaze on top of the cake and decorate with the marzipan carrots.

13. Enjoy!

Recipe is by Annick & Jeremy.