This tart-ified version of a carrot cake might not be an obvious classic, but it belongs in this chapter as a great foundational recipe for the tarts in our ‘Not Your Average Tarts’ chapter. The cream cheese glaze is what makes this one special – it’s designed to taste the same as a typical cream cheese frosting and to sit perfectly flat across the top of the tart (and it’s texturally superior as well, if we say so ourselves). You can, of course, with some practice, use a palette knife to get frosting perfectly flat, but at the scale we make tarts, we needed to find a way to make this as consistent as possible. The cake itself is, we believe, the perfect carrot cake: spicy, nutty and, of course, carrot-y.

MAKES 1 x 25cm TART

Cream cheese glaze

60g caster sugar

1g salt

3g pectin X58

130g cream cheese

1g orange zest

100g milk

Carrot cake batter

130g grated carrot (from approx 2 carrots)

20g natural almond meal

95g walnut meal

70g plain (all-purpose) flour

4g baking powder

5g salt

220g soft brown sugar

100g egg

100g Brown butter (see below)

SUPPLEMENTARY RECIPES

Shortcrust Pastry (Pâte Brisée)

200g plain (all-purpose) flour

100g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

3g salt

50g water

Brown butter

500g unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 165°C.

Cream cheese glaze

First mix the sugar, salt and pectin in a small bowl and set aside. Put the cream cheese into a plastic measuring jug and soften briefly in the microwave. Add the orange zest and milk to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the sugar and pectin mix to the simmering milk and whisk to combine, then remove from heat. Strain the milk mixture through a fine sieve into the jug with the cream cheese, then blend until smooth with a hand-held blender. Pour into a container, cover with a piece of plastic wrap placed directly onto the surface of the frosting and leave to cool in the fridge. 

Carrot cake batter

Mix the grated carrot with all the dry ingredients, except the sugar, in a bowl and set aside. Add the eggs and sugar to a separate mixing bowl. Either with a whisk or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, slowly combine until the sugar has dissolved. You do not want to incorporate any air at this stage, as it tends to separate when the butter is added and forms a foamy crust, so keep the speed low. Melt the brown butter in a saucepan. You want this to be warm enough so that the liquid doesn’t cool down too quickly, but cool enough so that it doesn’t develop any burnt characteristics. If the butter is too hot, it can also fry the egg mixture as you add it, so a thermometer is useful (we aim for roughly 100°C).

Once the butter comes up to temperature, slowly pour it into the egg and sugar mixture (or add little by little, if whisking by hand). Ensure that the mixture is well emulsified, as this will prevent the butter from bleeding out later, giving the cake a greasy texture. Then mix in the dry ingredients, making sure that there are no lumps suspended throughout the batter.

To bake

Pour the batter into your cooled pastry shell and place in the oven to bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the centre of the tart springs back when pressed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool inside the tin.

To glaze

Once the cake layer has completely cooled it’s ready to be glazed. Warm two-thirds of the glaze in a small saucepan over low heat until just melted. Pour this onto the remaining third and blend with a hand-held blender until smooth. Pour the glaze onto the centre of the cake and use a swirling motion to move the glaze to the edges of the tart. Then, tap gently on the bench so that the glaze fills the knuckles of the crust.

Once the glaze has filled the gaps, allow to set for 20 minutes before removing the tart from the tin and portioning into slices with a hot, sharp knife.

Supplementary recipes - Shortcrust pastry (Pâte Brisée)

Place the butter, flour and salt into a bowl (this process can also be done in a kitchen stand mixer or food processor). Using your fingers, work the ingredients together until they resemble fine bread crumbs and no lumps of butter are present.

Add the water a little at a time (or in a steady stream if using a kitchen stand mixer), until it forms a firm but malleable mixture. If you used a food processor earlier, it’d be best to finish this one off by hand.

Move the dough to your benchtop and work into a puck-sized shape. Wrap with plastic wrap and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Place the pastry on a piece of baking paper and cover with a second piece of baking paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry into a circle roughly 35 cm wide, and around 3mm thick. Allow the pastry to firm up again in the fridge for at least an hour before lining the tin (if lining the tin immediately, be sure to rest it for at least an hour).

Remove one piece of baking paper from the pastry and drape the pastry over your tart tin. You may find this easier to do by using a rolling pin.

Press the pastry into the knuckles of the tart tin using the flats of your fingers.

Use a sharp knife to remove any excess trim from the edges of the pastry. Allow the pastry to sit for 15 minutes or so in the freezer for one final rest.

Take one large sheet of aluminium foil and gently press into the edges of the pastry shell, ensuring that the sheet is big enough to go over the edge and completely line the tart. Fill it to the brim with uncooked rice, then fold the foil gently back over the top and place into the oven.

Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until the edges of the pastry are a nice medium-golden colour. Remove from the oven and sneak a look under the foil to check the doneness. Cook until the colour is consistent, then allow to cool at room temperature. Remove the foil and rice when cool enough to touch.

Brown butter

Place the butter into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once completely melted, allow the butter to simmer gently until it begins to foam. Continue to cook, stirring with a whisk on occasion to prevent burning on the bottom of the saucepan. Once the butter starts to expand, small flecks of browned milk solids appear and the fizzing sound of the butter stops, remove it from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Strain through a fine sieve to remove the milk solids (this is optional, the milk solids won’t change the flavour or texture of the tart). Store this in a container in the fridge until needed.

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