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Carrot cake magic: a visual recipe with food illustration


Hi there! I’m so excited to share this recipe illustration from my cookbook, This Better Pan Out. This book is all about comfort food, but with a creative twist—and I love making recipes come to life with my illustrations. If you’re in the market for a food illustrator for your next cookbook or magazine project, I’d be thrilled to collaborate. I’m Anna Lena, and my business brings together my love of food and art to create something truly special.


Indulge in a moist carrot cake, with each baking step accompanied by a food illustration that make this recipe a visual delight!



A delicious carrot cake recipe illustration by anna lena feunekes
Food illustration by Anna Lena Feunekes

This is my friend Jamie’s recipe for the most delicious carrot cake ever! Find it on her blog, talesof- pastry.com if you want to read the entire ingredient list, or check the art! Start with peeling the carrots and freshly grating them by hand with a grater or with a food processor. (Please do not use pre-packed grat- ed carrots as they are less juicy and make a dry cake.) Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F. Line the bottom of the springform with baking paper and grease the inner sides of the springform with butter or oil. Mix the sugars and the eggs a cou- ple of minutes until foamy. Add the vanilla extract, butter- milk, and the sunflower oil and mix until combined. Add the grated carrots and mix through the batter. Mix the dry ingredients in a sepa- rate bowl and add them bit by bit to the batter while mixing. If you like chopped walnuts in your cake, stir them through the completed batter. Pour the batter in the prepared springform and bake the cake on a wire rack in the middle of the oven for about an hour. (If you bake the carrot cake on a baking sheet, the cake will not bake evenly and will take longer to fully cook in the middle.) The carrot cake is well baked when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.


How to prepare the frosting

To make the Cream cheese lime frosting, make sure the butter is really soft because we don’t want any lumps. Stir the butter with a spatula until creamy. Add a spoon full of the cream cheese and mix in with a spatula until it is fully combined. Repeat with the rest of the cream cheese. Zest almost the entire lime above the frosting but leave a little for later. Add the vanilla extract, lime juice, and salt and mix until com- bined. (Adding a little lime juice gives that nice fresh and tangy note but please do not overuse as the frosting will become runny.


This is also the reason you should use good quality cream cheese. Most low budget cream spreads get really runny when they get in contact with lime juice.) Add the powdered sugar bit by bit until fully combined. If you like your frosting sweeter you can add some more powdered sugar to taste. But I like to aim for a nice balance of sweet and sour. Let the frosting set in the fridge until ready to use.


How to decorate it

Let your Carrot cake cool down on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before frosting it. I know that sounds like ages but big cakes need more time to cool down. And if you are a little too impatient and put the frosting on too soon, it will definitely melt off and drip down. But if that’s the style you want to go for, that’s cool too! Once your carrot cake is completely cooled down, spread the frosting on top of the cake with a spatula. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts on top of the cake and zest the last bit of leftover lime on top of the cake for a fresh green touch.


How to store the carrot cake

Usually, a carrot cake does not last very long as it fastly disap- pears into people’s mouths. Yet you can keep this cake up to a week in an airtight container in the fridge. But if you want to keep some for later you can easily freeze the frosted carrot cake in an airtight container. That’s it, this is Jamie’s recipe for making the most delicious carrot cake. You can even watch us make it on www.patreon.com/ annalenavaniersel!


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