Carrot Cake

For as long as I can remember carrot cake has been a favourite of mine. I have been making carrot cake muffins for about 8 years. All of my relatives have nothing but praise for my carrot cake muffins, so when I told my mum I was going to try a new recipe she was a bit surprised. In our house when we find a good recipe we stick by it. When I was about 6 or 7 I got my first recipe book (it’s one of those kids ones that they sell in the supermarkets) and we still make the brownies from it (they are pretty darn good)! However, I wanted to make an actual carrot cake and not muffins so I couldn’t just put the muffin mix in a cake tin like I do with cupcakes! I’ve done this before and it didn't turn out, it was edible but not as moist as I would have liked it to be. This cake is so easy to make and it’s a cupcake Jemma recipe (surprise, surprise!) In her original recipe she makes a 4 layered cake but I only wanted to make a 2 layered one so I divided the whole recipe in half. To make the icing I divided her quantity by 3 – I didn’t want too much icing but I didn’t want to be skimping on it either.

Ingredients:

210g plain flour

240g caster sugar

85g ground walnuts (70 for inside the cake and then 15g for decorating – she uses a lot more than this but walnuts are expensive so I decreased the quantity!)

2 tsp cinnamon (she had less than this in her recipe but I think it really needs this much to actually taste it in the cake)

1/3 tsp salt

¾ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

3 eggs

225ml veg oil

188g grated carrots (about 3-4 medium/small carrots)

Icing

57g soft unsalted butter

90g cream cheese

319g icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175c. Place the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer and beat until pale and fluffy. Next pour in the oil and the carrots. I use a food processor which has a grating attachment on it. 10/10 would recommend to a friend because it takes about 1/10 of the time to grate them in this than by hand!

2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and add to the wet mix. Then fold in your ground walnuts (I just whizzed the whole walnuts up in my food processor until the desired consistency was achieved).

3. Pour into 2 lined 8” cake tins and place into the oven for 25-30 mins or until it’s golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

4. I have already done a post about how to make the cream cheese icing (red velvet cake post) but I will explain briefly here. Beat butter until very pale in colour about 5-7 mins. It should be nearly white. Then add in the cheese and beat until well combined. Finally add in the icing sugar in two batches. (Tip: remember to start on a slow speed when adding icing sugar or else it will end up everywhere but in your bowl!)

5. To decorate the cake I sandwiched the two layers together with icing and put some walnuts around the circumference of the cake. I also made a swirly effect with my icing on the top. I wanted it to look rustic so I didn’t level my cakes and I didn’t ice around the edges. It also means less work too!

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we did! If you do decide to make it – make sure to post your pictures on Instagram and tag me in them (@alanabakes) so I can see them!