The Italian Job: Sweet November

November! The saddest month of the entire year. At least for me. Even the name sounds sad, November! The sun is going down at 4 PM already, temperature is going lower, is cold outside and the only thing you are up to is to stay under your duvet sleeping. They should allow to the human race the hibernation as for animals. Duvets ready, pillows, your cosiest pyjamas and I'll see you in March!!! Unfortunately that is not possible, so what we can do instead to get us out of bed. The answer is really simple: bake cake of course! And not any cake, a cake that reminds of the autumn but is colourful and tasty, but at the same time healthy and rich in vitamins, really important in this season. A nice and orange carrot cake with hazelnuts. This recipe I am about to introduce you contains the most healthy hazelnut in the whole world, hazelnuts that come from my father's garden in our country house, in the beautiful coast of Cilento.

INGREDIENTS:

100g plain flour
150g of shredded carrots
150g of hazelnuts
125g of sugar
3 eggs
16g of yeast
few drops of vanilla extract
40g of vegetable oil or butter

METHOD:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°. Put 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks (don't throw away the white part of the two eggs) in a large bowl with the sugar and start to mix with a hand mixer. Then add the vegetable oil(or butter) and continue to mix.

Meanwhile put in another bowl through a sieve the flour and do the same with the yeast, putting them in the same bowl with the flour and mix. Add in the mixture of sugar, oil and eggs few drops of vanilla extract, then add the shredded carrots and hazelnuts and keep stirring. At this point you can add at the mixture the flour with the yeast and blend it altogether. In another bowl, with a hand mixer whip the egg whites until they become like candid snow that you will add to the previous mixture and stir from the bottom upwards for few minutes. When the mixture will be smooth and homogeneous you can put in a round tin previously greased and floured. Bake in a hot oven for 40/45 minutes approximately and always try with a toothpick if is dry inside. If is still wet let the cake in the oven for other few minutes.