Gary Mehigan's Carrot Cake with Olive Caramel

To begin with, I am so obsessed with Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris that even I cant describe my obsession for them. My love for them started with the start of Masterchef Australia. And if I can make or bake or cook remotely anything to what and how they cook, I am literally on cloud 9!! So imagine my state of euphoria when I tried to make Gary's carrot cake with olive caramel.
It sounds weird right?! Who would think of olive caramel! But yet these people did think, and how!! 

I would like to think of this cake as a tasty yet a healthy cake!! Tasty because its a cake after all I mean whats a cake if it is not tasty? And healthy because its made from olive oil instead of your regular oil or butter or shortening. Now I have used the regular cake flour here, but if you want it to be more healthy you can bake this using wheat flour instead. The olive caramel is made using olive paste. Now olive paste is available in a few stores by the name tapenade but this includes garlic and oregano and other spices. So this clearly is not apt for desserts. You can make olive paste at home very easily. Just blitz a few olives in a food processor and you have olive paste ready. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients are 
For the cake:

• 2 eggs
• 250 gm soft brown sugar
• 150 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200 gm plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 340 gm grated carrots
• 100 gm sultanas/raisins
• 75 gm chopped walnuts
• double cream to serve

For the black olive caramel:

• 200 gm castor sugar or brown sugar
• 50 gm liquid glucose
• 100 gm black olive paste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
2. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat them well till the mixture is light in color and frothy. Gradually add the oil while continuing to beat. Fold in the all the rest of the ingredients.
3. Pour batter in a baking tray & bake for 40 mins or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.
4. Meanwhile, for black olive caramel, place sugar & glucose in a saucepan over medium high heat & cook until light brown golden. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Whisk in the olive paste, whisking continuously. Strain through a fine mesh into a bowl. Keep warm.
5. Serve slices of carrot cake with spoonfuls of warm caramel & double cream alongside.

So here it is, go ahead, try it and you will know the goodness of carrots in a cake!!

Happy Eating guys :)