Ginger Carrot Cake

I had been craving carrot cake for a good week or so, and had a half-tub each of cream cheese and mascarpone left over from making this cake (as well as a little of the ginger cream cheese/mascarpone frosting).
Anyway, the only sensible solution was a little too apparent... grab a couple of carrots and whip up a carrot cake, heavy on the ginger. I had only two and a half pecans, so decided to make the cake heavier on the ginger, incorporating fresh ginger, and left out any fruit and nuts.
The recipe for the cake was adapted from a recipe found on Bisous a Toi and the frosting was adapted from the one for this cake.

To make this into a round layer cake, double up the ingredients for the cake and triple the ingredients for the frosting. Bake in a round cake pan and slice into layers.

Ginger Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
For the cake
150g (¾ cups) granulated sugar
180ml (¾ cups oil canola/vegetable oil
2 eggs
156g (1 cup) plain flour, sifted
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
150g (1 ½) cups carrots, grated
1tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
For the frosting
1.5cm fresh ginger, finely sliced
10g caster sugar
10ml water
35g unsalted butter
100g icing sugar, sifted
75g mascarpone
100g cream cheese
½ tsp ground ginger

Method:

1. Grease and line cake pans. Preheat the oven to 180◦C/450F/mark 4.

2. For the cake, beat together the sugar and oil, then add in the eggs and mix to combine.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the carrots and fresh ginger and mix to incorporate evenly.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

6. For the frosting, place the ginger, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat gently until dissolved, then bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Once the syrup has cooled, remove and discard the ginger.

7. Beat together the butter and icing sugar (this may be most easily done in a food processor). Add the mascarpone, cream cheese, ground ginger and ginger syrup. Beat until homogeneous and use to frost the cake.