Carrot Cake
Carrot cake combines wonderful strong flavours that gel together so well. You can play around with different ingredients, but this is probably as 'classic' as it gets.
FEEDS 8
Ingredients
215g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon allspice
A pinch of salt
150ml sunflower oil
3 medium eggs
2 large/3 medium carrots
A handful of walnuts
A handful of sultanas
For the cream cheese frosting:
225g cream cheese
75g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
450g icing sugar
Zest of 1 orange
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Grease a 1lb/450g loaf tin evenly and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, spices and salt. In a smaller bowl whisk together the oil and eggs.
- Grate the carrots and chop the walnuts.
- Pour the egg and oil mixture into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Add the carrots, walnuts and sultanas to the mix, stir until combined and pour the mix into the loaf tin, then pop in the oven for 40 minutes.
- After 40 minutes stick a skewer in the cake – it will come out clean if the cake is fully cooked. If not give it another 5 minutes and try again. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- To make the frosting, beat the cheese, butter and vanilla extract together with an electric whisk, then gradually beat in the icing sugar. Fold in the orange zest using a spatula. When the carrot cake has fully cooled, spread the frosting generously over the top.