How to make carrot cake

For those of you who are unsure just what carrot cake is: Carrot Cake is a lovely, rich, moist, sweet cake that tastes nothing like carrots.

What's it all about?
However, carrots are used in this recipe, along with a host of other ingredients. This gives Carrot Cake a unique texture and flavour. Get the amounts wrong though and you could end up with a soggy mess.

Carrot cake can be made in round bun cases, small individual squares or as a large round or square cake. It can be shop bought and, though generally these are good, there is nothing to beat good home made carrot cake when you fancy a sweet treat.

The ingredients can vary a little and there is some leeway for those who do not like, for example, nuts such as pecans. These can be replaced with walnuts or simply omitted.

To my mind Carrot Cake is delicious and it looks as good as it tastes.

​Getting Started

• Grate the Carrots and put to one side.
• Pre-heat your oven to 160C or 140c for fan assisted ovens or set to mark 3 for gas ovens.
• Grease a large oven proof dish or roasting tin(about 28 by 25cms in size)and line with greaseproof or baking paper.
• Place the nuts onto a baking tray and cook in the oven for around 8 minutes. Less, maybe, but never for longer.
• Put the orange zest into a bowl with the sultanas. There should be about two tablespoons of zest. Set this to one side and leave for about 20 minutes.

To Make

• Into a large bowl, sift the flour and add the mixed spice and bicarbonate soda.

• Add half of the nuts and all of the coconut
• Place the eggs, sugar and oil into a large bowl and whisk until the sugar begins to dissolve.
• To the egg mixture add the sultanas with their orange juice, the grated carrots and the flour mixture

When thoroughly mixed together pour this mixture into the baking tin or dish

Ingredients
For a large cake that will slice into 18 pieces you will need:-

• 175G OF SULTANAS(OPTIONAL)
• 300G OF SELF-RAISING FLOUR
• 3 LARGE EGGS
• 250G OF LIGHT SOFT BROWN SUGAR
• 300G OF PEELED CARROTS (WEIGHT AFTER PEELING)
• 100G OF SOFTENED BUTTER
• 100G OF ICING SUGAR
• 300G OF FULL FAT, SOFT, CREAM CHEESE.
• 150G OF ROUGHLY CHOPPED PECANS, OR WALNUTS IF PREFERRED.
• THE ZEST AND JUICE OF ONE LARGE ORANGE
• 2 LEVEL TEASPOONS OF MIXED SPICE
• 11/2 LEVEL TEASPOONS OF BICARBONATE OF SODA
• 75G OF DESSICATED COCONUT
• 220ML OF SUNFLOWER OIL
• ONE TABLESPOON OF LEMON JUICE
• A FEW DROPS OF VANILLA EXTRACT(OPTIONAL)

​Cooking time

• Place the carrot cake on the middle tray of your oven
• Bake for roughly one hour

Final touches

• Leave the cake to cool in the dish or tin for about 10 minutes
• Lift the cake out onto a cooling rack or wire.

• Beat together the icing sugar and butter
• When softened add the lemon juice, vanilla and cheese.
• Beat a little more but not too much.
• Spread this mixture over the cooled cake, either roughly making peaks or spread it smooth.
• Sprinkle the remaining nuts on top of the cake

Additional requirements and Utensils

• Quite a few different mixing bowls to hand
• Sieve
• Grater
• Baking or greaseproof paper
• Whisk which can be a hand whisk. If one is not available a large fork.
• Cooling rack