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Carrot Cake with White Chocolate Ice Cream

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and chocolate work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and 85 recipes mention both. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 12 slices
Prep1 hr
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease and line two 9-inch (23 cm) round cake pans. Sift the flour, bicarbonate soda, cinnamon and pinch of salt together in a bowl.

  2. Whisk the 570g sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and 55g milk until smooth. Finely grate the carrots, chop the walnuts, then stir both into the wet mixture. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined.

  3. Divide the batter between the pans and bake 35 to 40 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the centre is set and reaches 200°F (93°C). Cool 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

  4. For the ice cream, warm the 1 litre milk and 200ml double cream in a saucepan until steaming. Whisk the 10 egg yolks with the 150ml sugar in a bowl.

  5. Slowly pour the hot milk mixture onto the yolks, whisking. Return everything to the pan and stir over low heat until the custard thickens and reaches 160°F (71°C). Do not let it boil.

  6. Remove from the heat and stir in the 400g white chocolate until melted. Strain into a bowl, cool, then chill at least 4 hours. Churn in an ice cream maker, then freeze about 4 hours until firm.

  7. For the frosting, beat the 100g butter, 200g cream cheese and 150g sugar until smooth and fluffy. Spread over the cooled cake layers, stacking one on the other.

  8. Cut the cake into 12 slices and serve each with a scoop of the white chocolate ice cream.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + chocolatetop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Cream cheese + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cinnamon + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together981 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, cinnamon, carrot, cream cheese, butter):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Pecansabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Beansabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, cinnamon, carrot, cream cheese, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).