Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Does anyone decorate a carrot cake with sugarpaste. I generally use a citrus cream cheese frosting with my carrot cake, but any idea what I would use if covering in sugarpaste.

Hi Carole

It may be better to crumb coat with butter cream, cream cheese frosting doesn’t always crust hard enough and could cause problems with moisture in the icing. Butter cream would also give the cake a smoother surface to lay fondant onto. Some carrot cakes are very light and moist and benefit from a slightly thinner covering of fondant. My personal preference for the crumb coat would be white chocolate ganache which would seal the cake more efficiently.

Thanks formthenadvice. The carrot cake recipe I use is the Mich Turner one which is gorgeous and moist. I guess I was worried that the carrot cake wouldn’t be as nice,mwithiutnthe cream cheese frosting and therefore I’ve never used carrot cake for decoration before. I was thinking about white chocolate ganache so thanks ill give it a try

Just wondered if I used the white chocolate ganache to cover the sides would I still be able to use the cream cheese frosting between the layers of cake?

Hi Carole

You can use the white ganache, make it stronge by using 3 x chocolate to 1 x cream, eg 300gm choc and 100 ml double cream. White choco doesn’t set as hard as dark so you’ll have to put the cake in the fridge for a while once you’ve put it on the cake. I use white ganache all the time and have never had a problem with it.

Hi thanks for that but what I was wondering was when I split the cake in half can I use cream cheese frosting in the middle of the 2 layers and the cover the cake with ganache prior to covering with sugarpaste or would I be best doing the whole thing with the gananche

Does anyone knows why the carrots in my carrot cake turn greenish after 2 days? the taste is still great it’s just that you see those green spot and it makes it less appealing. Should I blanch the carrot before I put them in my cake? I grate my carrot just before I put them in the cake, I make all my “mise en place” then I grate the carrot and I put it all together and I bake. I keep the baked and iced cake in the fridge at all time. We love carrot cake here but there’s only 2 of us in this house.

Hi sylvie57

Yes this does happen sometimes if there is a little too much baking soda in the recipe. I found a forum which discusses this topic which I thinkyou will find interesting. Take a peek here:
http://cakesdecor.com/topics/319-carrots-turning-green-in-carrot-cakes

Hope it helps.

That’s fine Carole, you can use the cream cheese filling, then ganache and then the fondant. Cream cheese has to be refrigerated so put the fondant on closer to the time you need the cake. Don’t put the cake in the fridge once iced because it will attract moisture and spoil. When you fill the cake don’t bring the cream cheese right to the edge to prevent it from squishing out of the sides. Ganache as usual, let it set in the fridge then ice it and keep it in a cool room.