Cherry-smoked carrot & pumpkin cake

Ingredients

Walnut phase

• 180 g walnuts
• Enough water to keep them submerged for 48 hours

Smoked-carrot phase

• 4 large carrots
• Cherry wood
• 1 large ripe tomato
• 150 mL water
• 40–60 g bitter honey or sugar
• Pinch of salt

Potato phase

• 1 large starchy potato, approximately 400–500 g
• Water
• Reserve 50–80 g of its pressed starch-rich liquid

Pumpkin phase

• Approximately 550–600 g pumpkin flesh: 350–400 g roasted and 200 g raw

Starter phase

• 100 g active sourdough starter (προζύμι)
• 50–70 g roasted pumpkin purée
• 10–15 mL Manaki extra-virgin olive oil

Dry mixture

• 170 g stone-ground spelt flour
• 80 g finely ground oat flour
• 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• Tiny pinch ground clove
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Egg foam

• 650–700 g well-mixed ostrich egg
• 60–100 g sugar, bitter honey, or a combination
• Approximately 100 mL Manaki extra-virgin olive oil

Marshmallow-root extraction

• 25 g dried Althaea officinalis root
• 250 mL water

Cream foam

• 100 mL concentrated marshmallow-root liquid
• 2 egg whites
• 60–80 g honey or sugar
• Tiny pinch salt

Cultured cream

• 500 g strained Greek yogurt or strained goat yogurt

Optional cream-cheese finish

• 400 g homemade cultured cream cheese
• 30–50 g cultured butter
• 30–50 mL buttermilk
• Thyme, oregano, and basil, used lightly
• Optional bitter honey and bee pollen

Movement

1. Soak the walnuts for 48 hours in only enough water to submerge them, topping up without changing the water. Lift them out, chop while wet, and reserve the soaking water for the connected soup.
2. Keep one carrot raw. Smoke the other three whole over cherry wood for 20–30 minutes without drying them, then cover-bake them with the whole tomato and the water, sweetener, and salt at 160°C for 45–60 minutes. Reserve the carrots and some cooking liquid.
3. Boil the potato beyond ordinary tenderness until it begins to disintegrate. Press it through cheesecloth; reserve 50–80 g starch-rich liquid for the cake and keep the potato solids for the soup.
4. Roast 350–400 g pumpkin until completely tender. Keep 50–100 g for the soup and mash the remainder. Finely grate or process another 200 g raw pumpkin.
5. Process the raw carrot. Combine most of it with the raw pumpkin and potato-starch liquid; reserve a little carrot for the soup and rest the cake mixture for 20 minutes.
6. Whisk the active starter with 50–70 g roasted pumpkin purée, then 10–15 mL olive oil. Rest for 20–30 minutes without adding water.
7. Combine the spelt flour, oat flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, salt, and baking soda.
8. Beat the ostrich egg, sweetener, and 30 mL olive oil until thick, pale, and heavily aerated. Slowly beat in the remaining olive oil.
9. Gently fold the pumpkin–starter mixture into the egg foam. Fold in the remaining roasted pumpkin, the raw vegetable–starch mixture, and the chopped or torn smoked carrots. Add only a little carrot–tomato liquid if more moisture is needed.
10. Sift and broadly fold in the dry mixture, rotating the bowl rather than stirring aggressively. Fold in the wet chopped walnuts last.
11. Bake in a lined deep 26 cm tin for 65–85 minutes. Stop when the edges are stable, the center is set and lightly springing, and no liquid batter remains; the skewer need not be completely dry. Cool fully.
12. For the cream, gently heat marshmallow root in water until viscous, strain, and reduce gently if needed. Whip 100 mL concentrate with egg whites, sweetener, and salt; cool, then fold into yogurt beginning near two parts yogurt to one part foam by volume.
13. Split the cooled cake if stable, fill and cover with the yogurt–marshmallow cream. Optionally reserve plain foam for the top and torch it briefly. The cultured cream-cheese branch may replace this finish.