Lovely Eirlys (aka Scrapiana) generously shared her Carrot Cake recipe with me, and said she didn’t mind if I gave it to you too. This is one of those great cut-and-come-again cakes that keeps well, can be made in advance, and can be tweaked to fit what you’ve got in the fridge. I also like the fact that it has less oil that some recipes I’ve seen, but it’s still spongy, spicy and lovely. The cake in the photograph is a doubling of the recipe below – heartily recommended.
Ingredients
- Carrots 6oz/150g
- 2 eggs
- 4oz/100g brown sugar
- 3 fl oz/75ml sunflower oil
- 4 oz/100g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 oz/50g desiccated coconut or ground almonds
- 2 oz/50g dried fruit as preferred
- Icing: 125g/4oz butter
- 225g/8 oz cream cheese (full fat)
- 250g/1 lb icing sugar
- Zest of 1 lime, and half the juice
Method
- Preheat oven to 190C/350F/Mark 5. Grease & line the base of a 7″ square cake tin, or a small (1 lb) loaf tin.
- Finely grate carrots.
- Whisk eggs and sugar together till thick and creamy. Add oil gradually, whisking well after each addition. Then add remaining ingredients & mix to combine evenly.
- Spoon resulting sloppy mixture into prepared tin. Level surface and bake for 20-25 minutes (though the loaf version will take longer: various wayward ovens through the years have taken an hour) till firm to the touch and golden brown. Cool and spread with icing (optional) or just scoff warm from the tin (my preference).To make the icing: cream the butter and cheese together, then add the sugar, lime juice and zest. Spread over the top, then perhaps decorate with some chopped nuts.
One Million Gold Stars 