This carrot cake parfait with white chocolate mousse is a three-in-one dessert in a glass. You bake a spiced carrot cake, whip up a light white chocolate mousse and cook a bright apricot-orange puree. Layered together, you get weekend-restaurant vibes with simple home kitchen steps. And the best part: you can prepare it well ahead.
It's perfect for Easter, Christmas or any special dinner where you want a layered dessert in a glass without last-minute stress.
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At a glance
- Servings: 4 persons
- Total time: about 3 hours (including chilling)
- Calories: about 937 kcal per serving
- Difficulty: medium (several components, but each step is simple)
- Key ingredients: carrot, egg, sugar, dark brown sugar, ginger, sunflower oil, flour, baking powder, gingerbread spices, cream, egg white, sugar, white chocolate, orange liqueur (optional), dried apricots, orange and water.
Layered Carrot Cake Parfait with White Chocolate
This is the dessert I make when I want the table to go quiet for a moment. While the carrot cake is in the oven, the kitchen smells like the holidays with speculaas spices, ginger, and sugar. Later, the white chocolate melts slowly over a pan of steam and the apricots bubble away with orange juice. It feels like you're spoiling someone, even if that someone is you.
Right before serving, you spoon the apricot-orange puree into glasses, add a generous scoop of mousse, press in a round of carrot cake and finish with more mousse and crumbs. It looks like something from a hotel buffet, but you know every step. The first spoonful gives sweet, tangy, creamy and spiced cake all at once. No one complains.
What You'll Need
Exact amounts are in the recipe card.
Ingredients for the Carrot Cake
- Grated carrot: Brings moisture and that carrot cake feeling.
- Egg: Binds the batter.
- Sugar and dark brown sugar: Sweetens the cake and add depth.
- Ground ginger: Adds a light, fresh warmth.
- Sunflower oil: Keeps the cake moist.
- All-purpose flour: Gives structure to this cake.
- Baking powder: Helps the cake rise and becomes airy.
- Salt: Balances the flavors.
- Speculaas spice mix: Warm Dutch spice mix flavors the cake. Make this speculaas spice mix easily yourself. If you don't have it, you can replace it with gingerbread spices.
Ingredients for White Chocolate Mousse
- Egg white: Whipped to make the mousse light.
- Sugar: Stabilizes the meringue.
- Heavy cream: Whipped to a soft, spoonable texture.
- White chocolate: The sweet base of the mousse.
- Orange liqueur (optional): Adds a citrus note.
Ingredients for the Apricot Orange Puree
- Dried apricots: Sweet, soft fruit base.
- Orange (juice and zest): Brings freshness and a bit of acidity.
- Orange liqueur: Extra flavor in the puree.
- Water: To simmer everything to softness.
How to Make It
You'll find the full, step-by-step recipe card below.
- Step 1: Bake the carrot cake: mix wet ingredients with grated carrot and sugars, mix dry ingredients, combine, bake and cool.
- Step 2: Make the mousse: melt white chocolate, whip egg white with sugar, whip cream, fold everything together (optional with liqueur), and chill.
- Step 3: Cook the apricot orange puree: simmer dried apricots with orange juice, zest, liqueur and water, then blend smooth.
- Step 4: Assemble: Spoon puree into glasses, add mousse, cut out rounds of cake and place on top, add more mousse and crumble cake over.
Top Tips
- Line the cake tin with parchment so you can lift the carrot cake out easily.
- Grate the carrot finely so it blends into the batter.
- Let the carrot cake cool completely before cutting circles, or it will crumble too much.
- Melt white chocolate slowly au bain-marie so it won't burn.
- Don't over-whip the cream; aim for yogurt-like thickness so it folds smoothly into the chocolate.
- Fold the egg white gently into the cream to keep the mousse airy.
- Chill the assembled parfaits for at least two hours so the layers firm up.
Did you make this delicious recipe? Tag #byandreajanssen via Instagram! I love to see what your creation looks like and regularly share the most beautiful photos of you! Did you like this recipe? Then leave a rating on the recipe card! Your feedback helps other home cooks and me enormously.
Need more inspiration?
- You can find video recipes on my YouTube channel.
- And don't forget to save the recipes on Pinterest, so you can easily find them again next time!
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RECIPE CARD
Recipe Help
Two easy tools to make cooking even easier. Cooking mode keeps the screen on. The easy-step recipe displays the recipe step by step, including the ingredients needed. And you can adjust servings easily
Ingredients
carrot cake
- 5 oz. carrots, grated
- 1 egg, size L
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ cup sunflower oil
- ⅘ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon speculaas spice mix
white chocolate mousse
- 4 oz. white chocolate
- 1 egg white, size L
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon orange liqueur, Optional
apricot orange puree
- 8 dried apricots
- 1 orange, juice and grated peel
- 1 tablespoon orange liqueur
- ¼ cup water
All my recipes are written both in Metric (gram / ml) and US Customary (cups / pounds). Here you can select which type of amount you would like to see.
Instructions
Carrot cake
- Preheat the oven to
350 °F or 320 °F - Brush a round baking tin (8 inches (ca. 20 cm) with oil and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- In a first bowl, mix grated carrot, egg, both sugars, oil and ginger with a fork.5 oz. carrots, 1 egg, ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup dark brown sugar, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, ½ cup sunflower oil
- In a second bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and speculaas spices.⅘ cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon speculaas spice mix
- Add the dry mixture to the carrot mixture and stir until you have a smooth batter.
- Pour into the baking tin and level the top.
- Bake for about 25 minutes.
- Let the cake cool to room temperature.
White chocolate mousse
- Melt the white chocolate au bain-marie.4 oz. white chocolate
- Beat the egg white until foamy, add the sugar and beat until stiff.1 egg white, 2 tablespoons sugar
- Whip the cream until it has the thickness of yogurt.1 cup heavy cream
- Optional: mix the orange liqueur into the melted chocolate.1 tablespoon orange liqueur
- Stir one-third of the egg white into the chocolate.
- Fold in the whipped cream.
- Finally, fold in the remaining egg white gently with a spatula.
- Chill the mousse in the refrigerator to set.
Apricot orange puree
- Put apricots, orange juice and zest, orange liqueur and water in a pan.8 dried apricots, 1 orange, 1 tablespoon orange liqueur, ¼ cup water
- Bring to a boil and simmer for about 8 minutes.
- Let cool to room temperature and puree until smooth.
Prepare the parfait
- Divide the apricot puree between 4 glasses.
- Add a scoop of white chocolate mousse to each glass.
- Use a round cookie cutter (same size as the glass) to cut circles from the carrot cake.
- Place a cake round on top of the mousse in each glass.
- Add another scoop of mousse and smooth the top.
- Crumble some carrot cake over each parfait.
- Chill for at least 2 hours to set.
Notes
- Fridge: Store parfaits covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
- Freezer: Not recommended once assembled; the mousse and cake change texture.
- Serving: Serve well chilled. Take them out of the fridge just before dessert.
Nutrition
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