Carrot Cake
This Carrot Cake is scrumptious. Unlike many other cakes, carrot cake improves with age. Nuts or no nuts...? The verdict is still out. I prefer Carrot Cake without nuts however this is a personal preference. Most people tend to prefer nuts, so include or exclude as you like!
Above I have decorated the cake in 3 different ways. The last cake has copious amounts of frosting, which also helps to seal in the moisture. This cake is succulent and full of flavour.
Please Note; I have used a bunch of Duchy Organic carrots. I was doing our grocery shopping and I could not resist. I normally buy the 650g bag's of Duchy carrots. The carrots with the beautiful leaves come in a 400g bunch, so I have substituted one of the carrots so I could keep one back for the photos!
Gluten Free? Simply substitute the plain flour for a gluten free flour blend. I use Doves Farm Free From Flour Blend in the UK click here for the recipe.
Dairy Free? I would add the zest of an organic orange to the cake mixture. I would then ice with an Orange Glacé Icing to avoid the dairy in the frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
270g softened unsalted butter (must be unsalted butter)
270g icing sugar
540g Philadelphia full fat cream cheese (must be full fat cream cheese)
optional 1tsp vanilla extract
Cake Ingredients
300g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
300ml sunflower oil
300g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp vanilla extract
300g coarsely grated organic carrots
100-150g shelled walnuts or pecans (plus extra to decorate)
* Walnuts & Pecans come in 100g packets. You can simply buy 1 packet and keep a few aside for decoration... I have used 150g of walnuts for the cake above, I had extra walnuts left over.
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/ 350F. Grease & line 3 20cm cake pans with greaseproof paper.
2. Measure out all of your ingredients. In a mixing bowl, combine the plain flour, bicarb soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and stir with a whisk to combine then set aside.
3. Toast nuts lightly, 3-4 minutes use a timer and keep an eye on them to avoid them catching. Once cooled chop the nuts to your preferred size (if the nuts are left too large, they may affect the slicing of the cake as they will tear through the sponge).
4. Put the sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and oil in the mixing bowl and beat until all ingredients are well incorporated. You may find the beater attachment makes some bumpy sounds. This happens to me when the beater hits lumps of sugar. Using the back of a spoon, you can flatten out these lumps.
5. Peel and coarsely grate your carrots, then set aside.
6. Add the dried goods to the egg mixture and beat until just combined, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
7. Then add the chopped nuts and grated carrot, then beat until fully incorporated. You do not want to over mix the batter. Simply mix until deposits of flour are no longer visible.
8. Divide the mixture evenly between the 3 prepared cake tins and smooth the cake batter flat with a pallet knife.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or until the sponge is golden brown, has slightly retracted from the tins and the cake bounces back when touched.
10. Leave the tins to cool on a wire rack. After 10 mins, run a knife around the cake pan, then turn the cakes out onto the wire rack. Keep the preferred serving side facing upward.
11. The Cream Cheese Frosting can be made and refrigerated whilst the cake is baking. Click here for a demonstration. Once the cake has cooled completely, begin icing the cake (if the cake is still warm, the icing will become runny).