Carrot mousse cake

Ingredients:

• carrots 220 g| 7.75oz
• flour 155 g | 5.45 oz
• baking powder 5 g | 0.20 oz
• brown sugar 80 g | 2.80 oz
• egg 2 pcs | 2.00 items
• vegetable oil (neutral, flavorless) 65 g | 2.30 oz
• pistachio 35 g | 1.25 oz 
• spice mix (cardamom, cinnamon, mint, cloves, lemon zest) 1/2 tsp | 1.00 tsp

Cooking:

1. Grate the carrots on the shallow side of the grater; place it in a bowl, together with the juice.
2. Mix the nuts with spices in an iron pot, and heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Then, grind.
3. Divide the eggs (at the room temperature) into whites and yolks. Mix the egg yolks with the vegetable oil, and slightly whisk them with a fork.
4. Whip the egg whites on a medium speed until fluffy; add sugar little by little, without stopping whipping. Whip the meringue until dense peaks at a high speed for 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Sift the flour with the baking powder, and add that mix to the whipped egg whites; add the eggs with the butter, then the carrots and the nuts, ground with spices. Knead the dough well with a spatula until smooth (make sure that there are no lumps of flour left).
6. Preheat the oven to 175C (347F).
7. Pour the dough onto a silicone mat with the sides, and bake the cake for 18 to 20 minutes. Cool it on a wire rack; then wrap it with cling film, and leave it at room temperature overnight. Store the biscuit in the fridge until assembling, without removing the foil. Before assembling the cake, cut out the two 16 cm (6.3 inch) cake layers. Remove the baked crust from the biscuit, using a sharp knife (for the cakes to connect with the mousse better).

Ingredients:

• orange pulp 20 g | 0.70 oz
• peach (fresh or canned) 20 g | 0.70 oz
• gelatin 3 g | 0.10 oz
• peach juice 100 g | 3.55 oz
• brown sugar 10 g | 0.35 oz
• pectin 3 g | 0.10 oz
• liquid honey 20 g | 0.70 oz
• one saffron strand | 0.00 to taste

Cooking:

1. Peel the orange, and cut it into small cubes. Cut the peach the same way.
2. Soak the gelatin in the cold water.
3. Heat the juice in a saucepan; separately mix the sugar and the pectin. Pour the dry mix it in a thin stream into the boiling juice, stirring constantly. Boil it for a minute. Add the orange and the peach, then the saffron thread; stir and cool the mass until 85C (185F). Squeeze the gelatin, add it to the compote, and mix until completely dissolved. Add the honey, and stir. Pour the compote into a silicone mold (d = 16cm | 6.3 inch, the height 0.5cm | 0.2 inch), and let it cool.
4. Freeze the compote for at least 12 hours. Store it in the freezer until assembling the cake.

For the walnuts praline:

• walnuts 90 g | 3.15 oz
• honey 25 g | 0.90 oz
• orange zest 1 tsp | 1.00 tsp
• sugar 10 g | 0.35 oz
• butter 15 g | 0.55 oz

Preheat the oven to 150C (302F). Cover the baking sheet with a sheet of parchment. Place the nuts in a iron pod; add the butter, the honey, the sugar and the zest. Heat the mass over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolves completely, stirring occasionally. Spread the nut mixture on a baking sheet, and bake it for 5 to 6 minutes; then mix the nuts well and leave them in the oven for another 3 to 4 minutes. Then cool the praline to the room temperature, and chop it into small sticky crumbs.

For the orange-flavored yoghurt mousse:

Cook the mousse just before assembling the cake!

• powdered gelatin 22 g | 0.80 oz
• natural yogurt 425 g | 15.00 oz
• cream 33-35% 275 g | 9.70 oz
• cream cheese 200 g | 7.05 oz
• white sugar 70 g | 2.45 oz
• cream 10% 110 g | 3.90 oz
• orange zest 1 tbsp | 1.00 tbsp
• vanilla seeds 1 pod | 1.00 item

Mix the yoghurt, the curd cheese, the cream (33-35%), the sugar and the zest in a deep mixer bowl. Stir the mix at a low speed with a paddle attachment until smooth (but don’t whip the mass!). Combine the cream (10%) with the gelatin, and let it swell. Place the gelatin on a very low heat and, heat it to 80C (176F) (don’t boil!), stirring constantly. Turn the mixer back at a low speed, and pour the hot cream into the mousse in a very thin stream; stir for another minute. Leave the mousse at the room temperature.

1. Place the 18 cm (7 inch) ring mold on the silicone mat. (Place the mat on a cutting board or something hard that can be frozen)
2. Place the first carrot crust, then a small amount of the mousse between the crust and the edges of the ring. Raise the ring a little, and put it back right there (so that a little mousse goes beyond the walls of the ring to the outside; this is how you avoid the voids in the mousse). Then sprinkle the roasted nuts evenly (half of the prepared amount); cover them with the mousse, about 1.5 cm high (0.6 inch). Gently place the compote on the mousse (right from the freezer), and slightly press it into the mousse. Next, place another part of the mousse with a height of 1.5 cm (0.6 inch); cover it with the second cake and the second piece of the roasted nuts. Finally, cover the cake with the rest of the mousse to the top of the ring mold. Smooth the cake top with a spatula, and cover it with cling film. Freeze the cake for at least 24 hours.
3. Remove the ring from the cake before serving, and level the top and the sides with a hot spatula.
4. The cake can be covered with glaze or chocolate velours. Decorate it at your discretion. Leave the cake for 4 to 6 hours in the fridge, and then keep it at the room temperature for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

I can’t call this cake a dietary one, but I did my best to reduce the sugar amount to almost a minimum. If you don't like the light cakes, then add more sugar to the mousse.

In the picture, both the cake and the piece of it are still frozen; the mousse is delicate, it would be difficult to photograph it in thawed condition in order to present the general appearance and the structure of the layers well enough. In the defrosted state, the biscuit is loose and crumbly.