After harvesting the comical carrots, I decided to treat my family to my much loved family favourite carrot cake. The addition of chopped walnuts and raisins add to the flavour and texture of the cake. Not being a fan of cinnamon, I substitute this with ground nutmeg and mixed spice. I have added the cream cheese frosting to the recipe, but to be honest, I don’t bother with it.
Here’s the recipe that you can try for yourself.
140ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
2 eggs
200g light brown sugar
300g grated carrots, (grated weight)
100g raisins
75g pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
180g self-raising flour
1 pinch salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice
For the cream cheese icing
250g cream cheese, chilled
50g butter,
1 tsp vanilla extract
275g icing sugar
1 orange, zest only
1. Preheat the oven to 150C/gas 2. Oil and line a 13 x 23cm loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
2. For the carrot cake: beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped nuts.
3. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients and bring the mixture together using a wooden or large metal spoon until well combined.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for about five minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
6. For the icing: beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until well combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and finely grated orange zest and mix until the icing is smooth and thick. Using a palette knife, spread the icing evenly over the cooled cake, dipping the knife into a bowl of hot water if the icing is hard to spread out. Cut into slices to serve.
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