Carrot Cake With Mascarpone Maple Cream
By: Patricia Turo
Published: Monday, February 1, 2010 - 9:10am

Ingredients




1 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
2 cups solid vegetable shortening or half shortening and butter
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 cups grated carrots
Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 ounces butter, softened
 cups confectionary sugar
Or
Mascarpone Maple Cheese Filling:
8 ounces container Mascarpone Cheese
8 tablespoons of maple syrup
1/4 cup pulverized walnuts/pecans

Preparation

1 In a mixer, place the shortening and sugar and beat until blended. Add the eggs one at a time while mixing. Put in the lemon juice. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder and add it a little at a time to the mixing bowl, blending it before you add more flour.  Once the batter is smooth, fold in the carrots. 2 In a well-greased bundt pan, spread the walnuts/pecans over the bottom of the pan. Pour in the batter and place the pan in a larger pan of hot water. The water should come up to about the middle of the pan. 3 Put it in a 350ºF oven for 1 hour. Allow the cake to cool before serving. Top with either cream cheese frosting or maple Mascarpone cream. 4 To make the cream cheese frosting, mix the softened cream cheese with the softened butter and add the vanilla and sugar blending it until it is smooth. 5 To make the Mascarpone frosting, bring the Mascarpone to room temperature. Pulverize the nuts in a food processor. Mix all the ingredients together until the cream is smooth. You can adjust the recipe to make it stronger. Add other varieties of syrup or chopped dates, chopped fruit etc. to compliment your dessert. Yields 1 1/5 cups.

About


This is a very old recipe of my mother's and is on the lighter side.  Chopped walnuts sprinkled at the bottom of the mold pan decorates the top of the cake. A dollop of Mascarpone cream or cream cheese topping on the side or as a filling keeps the filling moist and prevents it from drying out and cracking.
NOTE:  When baking, put the larger pan on the rack in the oven, pour the hot water in the pan and place your cake pan into it. This way you don’t risk dropping the hot water or splashing water into your cake batter.  It is much safer than doing it on the counter and bringing it to the stove.
Two mold pans can be used instead of one.  Fill the center of the cake with your Cream cheese or Mascarpone cream filling.