From the Castle Kitchen: Amaretto & Orange Spiced Carrot Cake Loaf

What started as a humble, seasonal desert ideal for the onset of autumn when our carrots are pushing up through the garden soil and aromatic cinnamon is the ultimate comfort-spice - we kicked this up a notch and dress it for the holidays by adding an orange-infused lacquer and ever-so delicately toasted cashews - goodbye Christmas poundcake and hello castle carrot cake.

Serves around 10-12 slices

Note: weight given in ( ) is not to be confused with volume

The recipe below is purposefully without dried fruit to ensure a light and delicious cake. The honey makes it sweet-enough, and the lacquer kicks it up a notch.

Wet Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) Amaretto

• 185 ml Greek yogurt

• 50 ml olive oil, + a bit more to coat the pan

• 90 ml honey, we used a bio locally sourced variety

Dry Ingredients

• 215 g of traditionally milled all-purpose flour, free from improvers, preservatives or chemical additives - ours is from local Młyn Skokowa

• 2 1/2 - 3 tsp cinnamon, or self-grate 1 cinnamon stick

• 5-7 cloves crushed into fine powder, can be done with the back of your kitchen knife or in a mortar and pestle

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• pinch of sea salt

Secret Ingredients

• 75 g cashews, unsalted, toasted, chopped

• 385 g of grated carrot, we use bio preserved grated carrots spiced by our neighbour

• 15 g unrefined, brown sugar

• Sprinkling of Flaky Maldon Sea Salt

Start by greasing a bread pan with olive oil: we use traditional baking forms to avoid the chemical-coated non-stick pans and we find that coating bottom and sides works beautifully. This cake can be cooked in a round or rectangular form and yields about 10-12 slices for the latter.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius - 350 degrees Fahrenheit

To toast the cashews, place whole nuts onto parchment paper and bake for 5-7 minutes in the oven (at 175 C), or until you will notice that their color becomes richer and a touch darker.

Portion out your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together with a wooden spoon. You should be able to smell the spices. Set aside.

In a second large bowl, combine amaretto, sugar, olive oil, yogurt and beat together. Set aside.

Grate carrots, or, if you have preserved carrots from Osowa Sien, add all but a tablespoon or so directly to dry ingredients and combine. The remainder will be used for topping (decoration).

Take the cooled (now toasted) cashews and chop into smaller pieces. Add 3/4 of these to the dry ingredients, reserving 1/4 for the topping (decoration).

Add the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, bit by bit, stirring each time with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Batter will be a bit wet which is perfect for a moist cake loaf.

Pour batter into greased pan and garnish lengthwise with remainder of grated carrots and toasted nuts. Press garnish down into batt slightly so that it does not burn in oven. Sprinkle sugar and salt on top of entire loaf.

Bake at 175 Celsius for about 60 minutes, or until lightly golden. To check for done-ness stick a wooden skewer through center of the cake. If it comes out dry it is done. If not, cook for a few more minutes until skewer comes out dry. When done, remove from oven and set aside for just a few minutes. After the pan cools, use a spatula around the sides to loosen the loaf. Turn pan upside down and smack against cooling rack to pop the cake out. Set aside on rack to cool entirely.

While cake cools, it is a great time to make the lacquer.

Lacquer (optional, but magical):

• Zest of one large orange

• Juice, fresh-squeezed from half of the zested orange

• confectioners sugar

• 1 pinch of sea salt

Mix the lacquer and drizzel over top of the cake. And, viola - it is ready to enjoy! Served with orange wedge or slice of manderine, a piece of mint, and a cup of coffee or camomille tea :)