Carrot Cake
Carrot cake is a classic in the world of cakes. It’s an oil cake full of shredded carrots, raisins, and nuts. Making the cake is really easy because it uses the dump method. All the ingredients are dumped and mixed in one bowl. Carrot cake is usually frosted with cream cheese icing.
My favourite carrot cake recipe is from Angela Nilsen. The cake is light and moist. It’s delicious with or without icing.
Source: “The Ultimate Recipe Book”
(Cuts into 16 pieces)
85 g Brazil nuts, toasted and fairly finely chopped
finely grated zest of 1 medium orange
2 tbsp orange juice
115 g raisins
225 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 rounded tsp ground cinnamon
175 g dark muscovado sugar
175 g sunflower oil
3 eggs
280 g finely grated carrot (2-3 carrots)
Icing
50 g icing sugar, sifted if very lumpy
50 g butter, at room temperature
100 g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 tsp lemon juice
1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F). Place rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Oil and line a deep 20-cm square cake tin with parchment paper.
3. Soak raisins in orange juice.
4. Mix flour, baking soda and cinnamon.
5. Put sugar in a large bowl. Rub with fingers to break up lumps. Add oil and beat till smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture. Gently stir till evenly mixed. Fold in carrots, nuts, raisins (and any liquid) and orange zest.
6. Pour batter into cake tin. Bake for 1 hour until risen, firm on top, and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
7. Remove cake from oven. Let cake cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the paper and let it cool down completely.
8. Beat butter with icing sugar till smooth. Add cheese, orange zest and lemon juice. Beat till smooth again. Spread over completely cold cake. Chill to firm up icing. Keep chilled till ready to serve.