Carrot Cake

It’s a bit crazy when I think of it but I don’t know if my mother has a favourite cake. She eats pretty much everything I bake but I have no clue if she has a favourite. I do know she likes carrot cake so I thought it would be a safe bet when it came to making her a cake for Mother’s Day!

Carrot Cake

Adapted from Rachel Allen’s Bake

Ingredients

2 eggs

140ml vegetable oil

200g soft light brown sugar

300g grated carrot (weight when grated,a food processor makes this a quick, easy job)

75g walnuts, chopped (optional)

180g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Decorations for the cake (like sprinkles)

For cream cheese icing:
250g cream cheese (straight from the fridge)
50g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
275g icing sugar, sifted

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F).

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the oil, grated carrot, brown sugar, and chopped nuts (if using) and mix together.

3. Sift in all dry ingredients and mix using a wooden spoon.

4. Pour mixture into a baking tin pre0lined with grease proof paper (Rachel uses a loaf tin but I used a round tin). Bake for about 1 hour (mine took about 40 minutes but thinking about it, I think I had my oven temperature higher than it should be. So it may be no harm to check around the 40 minute mark).

5. Allow to cool in tin for 5 minutes before removing and transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.

6. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl. Add the vanilla extract and icing sugar and mix to combine, until smooth and quite thick. Spread icing onto cooled cake using a palette knife or spatula.

7. Decorate if desire and enjoy!