Carrot cake waffle cake with spiced caramel drizzle

Everything you love about carrot cake, but in the form of a waffle. How good is that? Two things you need to remember. Only invite the people over that you really love, and measure all your ingredients first.

Carrot cake waffle cake with spiced caramel drizzle. Credit: Comfort Food With Spencer Watts.

• serves

  4

• prep

  35 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

Carrot cake waffles

• 1¾ cups plain (all-purpose) flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 3 tsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp ginger powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• ¼ tsp allspice powder
• ½ tsp nutmeg powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 115 g (½ cup) melted butter, at room temperature
• 2 egg whites
• 2 cups peeled, grated carrot (about 4 medium carrots)

Cream cheese icing

• 455 g (16 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup icing sugar1 tsp vanilla extract
• Lemon zest from ¼ lemon

Spiced caramel

• 115 g (½ cup) butter
• ½ cup cream
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• ½ tsp ginger powder
• ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
• ¼ tsp allspice powder

For layers and topping

• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup chopped dates
• Orange zest
• Coloured sprinkles, optional

Instructions

1. For the waffles: Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, white sugar, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg to a bowl and whisk to combine.
2. To a second bowl, add 2 eggs, milk and melted butter, whisking to combine. Fold into dry ingredients until just combined.
3. Beat egg whites until peaks are formed. add to batter along with grated carrots and gently fold into batter until just combined.
4. Spray or grease waffle iron and make waffles according to manufacturer’s instructions (make sure not to overfill the iron with batter).
5. Transfer waffles to rack or baking sheet to cool.
6. For cream cheese icing, add cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a stand mixer bowl and whip until creamy. Set aside.
7. For caramel sauce, add butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice to a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thick and darkened in colour. Pour into a spouted cup or bowl for drizzling, and set aside to cool.
8. Apply cream cheese icing to carrot cake waffles layers with a piping bag or spatula (see Note). Top each layer with chopped walnuts and dates, and drizzle with a little spiced caramel. Stack to form a cake then decorate the top of the cake with more chopped walnuts, dates and sauce. Finish with orange zest and/or coloured sprinkles.

Note

Spencer uses a waffle maker that creates large round waffles. He then lays out all the waffles on his bench top and tops them, before stacking together and transferring the stack to a serving platter, then finishing the decorating of the ‘cake’. If your waffle maker creates other shapes, or more or less waffles, adapt the shape of your cake and number of layers to match.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.