A well-travelled cake
From Switzerland to Germany to South Africa
The story of Bernd’s cake starts in Berlin, around Easter last year, when he invited me over to help prepare the Sunday roast. His daughter had requested carrot cake for dessert and, being a dedicated father, he obliged, sourcing a Swiss recipe for Rüblitorte from his trusted cooking friend, Jana.
Before then my view of carrot cake was a blinkered one. To my mind it was a layer cake studded with walnuts or pecans (and possibly pineapple) and sandwiched with cream-cheese icing. The unspoken ‘healthy option’ in a loyal trio on coffee-shop cake counters, sitting between chocolate and cheesecake.
Bernd’s cake was a confident, minimalist single layer with a pleasing flat top. It was rich in ground nuts and grated carrot with a glaze, hidden under a dusting of sugar, that delivered a flash of sticky and tart like the flicker of a neon sign. I felt a faint glimmer of recognition – a memory of my German godmother’s carrot cake.
My godmother was a woman of herbal teas, health shoes, and whole foods and, like Bernd’s, her cake was mostly made of a bunch of carrots and bags of nuts, but she used hazelnuts where his took almonds, Kirsch where his took rum and cinnamon, where his added a generous pinch of ground clove.
‘Remember not to grate the carrot too fine,’ wrote Bernd on sharing the recipe, ‘And add the rum when melting the apricot jam to brush over the top’. Bernd had made some adjustments to the cake on its route from Switzerland to Germany, and between Germany and South Africa I would make some of my own too.
The hazelnuts were a notable change. One of the luxuries of being in Berlin was access to ground hazelnuts for baking, which aren’t common in Cape Town. So, I found roasted hazelnuts at a local supplier and ground them myself to use instead of ready-ground almonds, which were too fine to achieve the right texture.
To extend the fresh lemon zest and squeezed juice, lemon brandy replaced rum (inside not on top). And thanks again to Ryan of Oranjezicht City Farm, I’d dried out some Tulsi leaves from one of their harvests to turn into tea and that first cup smelled unmistakeably like… cloves! A natural pairing for the spice in the cake.
So often what we make feels like the work of a community, a culmination of everyone who contributed: Bernd, Jana, my godmother, The Hopes (who made brandy from our lemons), Ryan, and our friend Ursula, who gifted us sugar hens from a fancy Viennese confectioner to perch on this year’s Easter carrot cake – in Cape Town.
Though this is likely the point in the Oscars speech when the music starts playing, thank you to Bernd for broadening our carrot-cake horizons and to everyone along the journey!
Community carrot cake
Line the base of a 22cm diameter springform cake tin with baking paper. Butter the sides and dust with flour, tipping out the excess. (Bernd bakes his in a 24cm diameter springform cake tin.)
Weigh out 300g of the freshest possible, preferably organic carrots, peel, top and tail, rinse and drain and grate on the large holes of a box grater.
Source 300g roasted hazelnuts, pound with a pestle and mortar to break them up and then process in a food processor until ground but not so fine so as to be powdery or turn to butter. They should have a nubbly, crumb-like appearance.
Sift into a small bowl: 35g (four tablespoons) stoneground cake flour and one teaspoon (5ml) baking powder. Add half a teaspoon (2.5ml) ground cinnamon, a knife tip of ground cloves, and a pinch of sea salt and stir to combine.
Separate five eggs between two large mixing bowls.
To the yolks add 300g sugar and one tablespoon of lemon zest and beat until thick, pale, and creamy.
Add the carrots and then the hazelnuts and stir through.
Add one tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice and two tablespoons of lemon brandy or rum and stir through.
Add the flour mix and stir through until well combined.
Beat the egg whites to firm peaks. Add a third to the yolk mixture and stir through to loosen. Add the rest of the whites and fold through gently but purposefully until combined.
Tip into the prepared baking tin and smooth over the top. Bake at 160°C for one hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. (Bernd bakes on fan setting.)
When still warm, melt three tablespoons of apricot jam and and brush over the top. When completely cooled, dust the cake with icing sugar. Serve with plenty of whipped cream and homemade Tulsi tea or a freshly brewed coffee.