Carrot Wedding Cake

Asked by Malawi. Answered on 17th October 2020

Full question

I’m making my sister’s wedding cake in a couple of weeks and they’d like 3 tiers - each a double layer. It’ll be a naked cake. Can I use the Carrot Cake for the lowest layer? Will it hold the above layers with dowels? Also for the middle layer which is best? The Devil's Food Cake or Red Velvet (Nigella's recipe of cupcakes made into cake?). I’ll need the icing to be thin cream cheese on outside but can do chocolate buttercream for the inside of a Devil's Food Cake and lightly coat it with cream cheese frosting on outside to give the “semi naked” effect. Many thanks!

Ginger and Walnut Carrot Cake

By Nigella

Our answer

Nigella's Ginger And Walnut Carrot Cake (from AT MY TABLE) is a firmer, single layer version of carrot cake, which would probably make it suitable for the bottom layer of a tiered cake, though bear in mid that the texture is different to an American-style carrot cake. However the recipe makes one deeper cake which is probably not enough to split and make a double layer cake yet is too deep to make two and sandwich them together. So you may need to use 1½ times the cake quantity and split it between two 23cm/9-inch cake pans and bake for a shorter time (our guess would be 25-30 minutes). However, as we have not tried the cake in this form, we are unable to guarantee the results.

Between the Devil's Food Cake and Red Velvet we would probably choose the Devil's Food Cake as it has a slightly more robust texture than the Red Velvet sponge, which is lighter and more tender. Also bear in mind that cream cheese frosting can soften very quickly so is probably better for the outside of the cake than for holding layers together. All stacked cakes should have dowels in the lower tiers (we would suggest dowels in both the bottom and middle tiers) and we suggest putting each tier on its own cake board to support and distribute the weight once the cakes are stacked (you can get very thin boards and use boards the same diameter as the cakes). This also makes transporting the cakes easier as you can transport the layers in individual boxes and then stack the cake on arrival. Alternatively, you can find various cake stands that can display 3 tiers together without having to stack them.