Carrot almond cake with lemon cream cheese icing
Makes 1 cake
Being on the healthier end of the cake spectrum, this cake is perfect for a children’s birthday party. The batter can also be baked as muffins, which are moist and totally delicious – just skip the icing if you wish. If you don’t have wholemeal flour on hand, that’s fine, just use regular self-raising flour.
4 eggs
125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) milk
185 g (6½ oz/1 cup lightly packed) brown or rapadura sugar (see note)
250 ml (8½ fl oz/1 cup) olive oil
310 g (11 oz/2 cups firmly packed) grated carrot
100 g (3½ oz/1 cup) ground almonds
300 g (10½ oz/2 cups) wholemeal (whole-wheat) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
LEMON CREAM CHEESE ICING (FROSTING)
375 g (13 oz/1½ cups) cream cheese, softened
125 g (4 oz/1 cup) icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted
60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) fresh lemon juice
finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus extra to sprinkle on top (optional)
Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Grease and line two 20 cm (8 inch) round cake tins with baking paper.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar and oil in a mixing bowl. Stir in the carrot and ground almonds. Add the flour and cinnamon, and stir until just combined.
Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Leave in the tins for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
To make the icing, use an electric mixer to beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest (if using), until well combined and smooth.
To assemble the cake, trim the domed top off one of the cakes once cooled. Place the trimmed cake on a cake stand, trimmed side up, and spread some of the icing on top. Top with the second cake, dome side up, and spread the remaining icing over the top. Scatter over some extra lemon zest, if liked.
Baby’s serve: because this cake does have some added sugar, you should ideally wait until your baby is over 12 months before offering it to her. If you do wish to give her a little taste, you can minimise the sugar by skipping the icing.
Toddler’s serve: cut up as needed, skipping the icing for a low-sugar option.
Tip: For a nut-free version you can replace the almonds with a ground seed mix (see tip).
