Carrot Cake

Yet another sweet treat! Recently my friend P got admitted as a solicitor and another friend and I decided to have a little dinner party to celebrate. In our usual fashion I was responsible for dessert. I had taken this recipe from a friend of my sisters and was very keen to try it. It turned out very moist and kept well in the fridge, it was definitely a recipe that I will make again. I made the cake one day and iced it the next, there is nothing worse than nice chilled cream cheese becoming warm and gross because your cake is still too hot!


So here is the recipe for a delicious carrot cake, perfect to share and very moreish!


Ingredients

- 2 cups plain flour
- 2 tsp bicarb soda

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 2 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 cups caster sugar

- 1 cup chopped walnuts

- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

- 4 eggs (room temperature is best)

- 3 cups grated carrot 

extra walnuts for walnuts for decorating

Cream cheese icing

- 250g softened cream cheese (I used soy cream cheese and honestly no one knew it was soy until I told them)

- 50g softened butter

- 1tsp vanilla extract

- 500g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Line a 23cm square cake tin (I used a loaf tin to make it easier to slice) with non stick baking paper. If like me, your tin is old and a little too often baked in, use plenty of spray or margarine to grease the edges so that the cake comes our ok.

2. Sift flour into a large mixing bowl with the bicarb soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir in sugar and walnuts.

Dry ingredients

3. In another bowl, mix the oil and the eggs until well combined, stir in the grated carrot.

Yes, it looks funny. But yes, it will  taste delish later

4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to form a smooth batter.

5. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 60/80 minutes or until cooked through. Cool for 5 minus before turning onto a wire rack.

I cooked mine for 75 minutes, check with a skewer if unsure

6. Using a food processor, blend the cream cheese and the butter, add the vanilla then mix in the sifted icing sugar until smooth. Add the icing sugar slowly, I didn't use the full amount as it tasted sweet enough after about half the amount. It all depends on how sweet you want it to be.

Cream Cheese!

7. Once the cake has fully cooled, ice with the mixture and decorate with walnuts. The icing is quite sticky before it sets, so I was able to kind of toss the walnuts at the side of the cake and they stuck quite well.

YUM!