Brown Butter Carrot Layer Cake with Orange Cream Cheese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan ovens 20 °C lower) for 15 min. While it heats, spread the walnuts on a baking tray and toast them for 7 min until fragrant, then cool and chop roughly. They burn quickly, so set a timer.

   oven

2. Make the brown butter. Melt the butter in a small light-coloured pan over medium heat for 5 min, swirling. Once the foam settles and the milk solids at the bottom turn hazelnut brown and smell nutty, immediately pour it, brown specks and all, into a heatproof bowl. Leave for 10 min until just warm. It can burn in seconds, so don't walk away.

   Add in this stepUnsalted butter (for browning) 100 g

   medium heat

3. Oil a 15 cm round tin and line the base with baking paper. In a large bowl, put the eggs, both sugars and the grated ginger, pour in the warm brown butter and whisk for 2 min until paler and smooth.

   Add in this stepEggs, at room temperature 2Light brown soft sugar 90 gCaster sugar 20 gFresh ginger, finely grated 1 tsp

4. Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and fold with a spatula until no dry flour remains. Add the grated carrot and most of the chopped walnuts and fold two or three more times.

   Add in this stepPlain flour 130 gBaking powder 1 tspBicarbonate of soda ¼ tspGround cinnamon 1 tspGround nutmeg 1 pinchSalt 1 pinchCarrots, peeled and finely grated 150 gWalnuts 45 g

5. Pour into the tin, level and bake in the oven at 170°C for 35 min, until a skewer in the centre comes out clean and the top springs back.

   oven

6. Cool in the tin for 10 min, then turn out onto a rack until completely cold. Level the domed top with a bread knife, then slice the cake horizontally into two layers, turning it as you cut around the sides.

7. Beat the softened frosting butter with the sifted icing sugar and orange zest until fluffy, then add the cold cream cheese and beat for 2 min, just until smooth.

   Add in this stepUnsalted butter (for the frosting), softened 35 gIcing sugar 65 gOrange (zest only) ½Full-fat cream cheese, cold 150 g

8. Spread a third of the frosting over the bottom layer and place the top layer on it, cut side down. Cover the top and sides with a thin coat of frosting to trap the crumbs and chill for 15 min, then spread on the rest smoothly. Finish with the remaining walnuts and a little flaky salt.

   Add in this stepWalnuts 15 gFlaky sea salt 1 pinch