Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake

I've never made carrot cake before, which is crazy because I love carrot cake! So I decided I would make one for my birthday, which is still ages away but I thought I should do some recipe testing before hand. I had envisioned working my way through several recipes giving marks out of ten etc. But I think I'm in love with this one! I cannot stop thinking about it. I want more! It is moist and tasty and the icing is light and fluffy.

The Cake

I followed the recipe from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy although I didn't want a big cake, so I reduced the quantities by two thirds to just make one of the three layers she has pictured. Which was a perfect amount. These are the quantities I used:

• 175ml vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 175g soft dark brown sugar
• 140g carrots peeled and grated
• grated zest of one orange
• 175g self raising flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp bicarb of soda
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C - I had my fan assisted oven on at 165°. Prepare a 23cm/9in round tin by oiling the insides and lining the bases with baking paper.

Put the oil, sugar, carrots and orange zest in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon.

Mix the flour, salt, bicarb of soda and mixed spice together then sift into the bowl.

Add the vanilla and lightly mix everything together until the mixture is uniform but still soft and runny. Pour it into the tin and bake for about 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave it to cool for 5 minutes then turn it out onto a wire rack and peel off the paper.

The Icing

I basically followed the recipe for cream cheese buttercream in Karen Sullivan's Step by step cake decorating book. Again I changed the quantities for my own purposes.

• 65g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• 200g icing sugar
• 90g cream cheese

Cream the butter and vanilla together with an electric whisk. Add half of the icing sugar, beat well, then add the other half and beat it again.

Add the cream cheese, a little at a time, beating vigorously until fluffy.

The spread it over the cake and enjoy!

If you tried the carrot cake, let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.
Also, I'm always looking for new ideas for baking/cooking, if you have any suggestions, leave a comment!