Whipped Mascarpone Browned Butter Carrot Cake

Whipped Mascarpone Browned Butter Carrot Cake with carrot caramel pecans makes a perfectly decadent centrepiece for your Thanksgiving celebration!

After two weeks of heatwave weather, it finally feels like fall and I am embracing it with this Whipped Mascarpone Browned Butter Carrot Cake. Fresh carrots baked up with browned butter, buckwheat flour, demerara sugar, fall spices and finished with cinnamon vanilla bean whipped mascarpone topped with carrot caramel pecans!

The Dude, who is more a salty snacks guy, proclaimed it one of the best cakes EVAH! He's brutally honest about everything I make, so I know he wasn't just being the supportive partner. Anyhooo,  I repaid the compliment by taking the cake into work, where it magically disappeared in less than ten minutes. To this, he did not respond well.

Had I kept this Whipped Mascarpone Browned Butter Carrot Cake in the house a second longer, it would have easily planted itself on my hips and thighs. For that reason, but not before sampling the goods, I quickly find homes away from mine for my baked goods. This generally includes neighbours, friends and colleagues. My family isn't that big on sweets. I know.... I often wonder if I was adopted. 🙂

But I digress.

I like my carrot cake without the unnecessary add-ins like nuts, fruits and the like. This recipe is adapted from here and here. What makes it special is the browned butter, coupled with the demerara sugar and buckwheat flour. Together they provide a deeper, more complex flavour.

I have nothing against cream cheese frosting, except that I prefer mascarpone for it super creamy texture and mildly sour notes. Flavoured with a little cinnamon and lots of tiny vanilla bean specks, it's the perfect match for this carrot cake.

If you have been around here long enough, you know how much I love a contrasting texture in my desserts. Although not of fan of nuts baked into my carrot cake, I do love it as a topping. Enter carrot caramel drenched roasted pecans!

I made the caramel a day prior and just wasn't in the mood to caramelize the nuts when I was putting the final touched to the cake. So, I roasted the nuts and while they were still piping hot out of the oven, I drizzled, ok... drenched them in some of the carrot caramel. I then tossed them and returned the tray to the oven for about a minute, then took them out tossed them again and allowed them to cool in the tray.

We'll call it lazy-girl caramelized nuts!

I had no intention of adding drips to the cake, but the caramel could not be contained when drizzled onto the nuts atop the cake. Luckily, it was just on one side of the cake, so I was still able to keep the somewhat simple, no-fuss look I intended for this Whipped Mascarpone Browned Butter Carrot Cake.

Sweet Tips For Success:

• make sure your brown butter is in liquid form to imitate the oil called for in the original recipe.
• if you don't have the silicone mold I used (LOVE!!!), you can substitute two 6 or 7-inch pans, a small Bundt pan, or cupcake pan.
• you can play with the flours' ratio, but may need to adjust the baking powder, so you don't lose the rise.
• for best results, chill the coconut milk/cream the night before and ensure the cheese, as well as the bowl are all chilled.
• be patient, unlike regular whipped cream, it takes a while to whip up the mascarpone frosting to stable peaks. Corn starch, or a whipped cream stabilizer may be added, if needed.
• this whipped topping is best used same day, but if you find yourself with leftovers (gasp!), a brief re-whip will fluff it right back up.

I really loved this cake! I think you will too and hope that you'll whip one up for Thanksgiving, or you know, just because. If you do, would you stick with mascarpone, or whip up your fave cream cheese frosting? I'd love to know!