Perfect Carrot Cake

Here we are, finally a new blog post. I had hoped to get back into it slightly earlier into the New Year, but I've been suffering badly with migraines so blogging has had to be put on the back burner. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into a routine with it over the next few months.

I've wanted to post a good carrot cake recipe for AGES now as  it's one of my absolute favourites. This recipe is usually foolproof, but I did manage to chuck the cake on the floor mid-bake this time which led to a few problems, but I think I managed to salvage it. Carrot cake makes a delicious Easter Sunday dessert, so I thought that this was a good time to share this recipe with you.

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour

175g light muscovado sugar

140ml vegetable oil

100g raisins

60g chopped, toasted pecans (optional) 

3 large eggs 

3 medium carrots, grated *

zest of 1 large orange,grated

juice of half an orange

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg **

For the cream cheese frosting

125g cream cheese

50g unsalted butter ***

300g icing sugar

* I decided not to peel my carrots before grating them as I feel this takes away a lot of the flavour, if you decide to do the same then make sure you wash the carrots well before hand.

** I used freshly grated whole nutmeg rather than ground as I prefer the flavour, but it is a little fiddly so ground nutmeg will work just fine.

*** I leave my butter out of the fridge to come to room temperature, then softened it using a wooden spoon to prevent lumps in the frosting.

Method

- Begin by heating the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Grease and line an 18cm square cake tin or a 20cm round cake tin.

- In a large mixing bowl lightly beat the eggs, then tip in the sugar and oil and mix well.

- Add the grated carrot, raisins, chopped pecans, orange juice and orange zest into the bowl and combine everything together.

- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into the bowl and fold into the mixture, the mixture will be a little runnier than regular cake batter but don’t worry, this is just because we’ve used oil as our fat.

- Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and lightly tap the tin on the work surface to level it out. Bake for 40-45 minutes in the centre of the preheated oven, or until cooked through and springy to the touch. * Don't do what I did and take the cake out too soon, then accidentally burn yours hands on the tin and drop the cake upside down on the floor... oops!

- Meanwhile, make your frosting by sifting the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add the butter and cream cheese and beat together until smooth. 

- Leave the cake to stand in the tin for a few minutes, the carefully remove it and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Once the cake is completely cool, top with the frosting and decorate however you’d like. I’ve used extra pecans, but you could also use candied carrot swirls or piped icing carrots.

I think that this cake tastes best a couple of days after baking, when all of the flavours have developed, but it is also delicious fresh out of the oven! It freezes well too if you wrap it tightly in cling film and put it in the freezer before adding the frosting.

I'm planning to do another Easter recipe next week so keep an eye out for that... it involves lots of chocolate!