Carrot Cake

Who can resist a slice of moist carrot cake? Does it lure you in? Well I for one can’t resist and it definitely lures me in. I love carrot cake and if topped with a cream cheese icing then it’s all over for me!! I watched Rachel Allen making this carrot cake on TV last week from her new series Bake that accompanies her new book Bake. Did I mention how great this book is?! Well the series is great too; you get to watch her make recipes from the book, which I love. There are probably hundreds of recipes for carrot cake but personally a good carrot cake recipe is packed with carrots, spice, nuts, raisins and not forgetting the cream cheese icing. This recipe without doubt delivers all this, the cake is delectable and a carrot cake lover’s dream!

Carrot Cake

Serves 12

Ingredients
2 eggs
140ml (5fl oz) vegetable oil
200g (7oz) soft light brown sugar
300g (11oz) grated carrot (weight when grated)
100g (3 ½ oz) raisins
75g (3oz) pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
180g (6 ½ oz) self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp mixed spice

For the orange cream cheese icing
250g (9oz) cream cheese (straight from the fridge)
50g (2oz) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
275g (10oz) icing sugar, sifted
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Sugar flowers or sprinkles (optional)

13 x 23cm (5x9in) loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 150oC (300oF), Gas mark 2. Oil and line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped nuts. Sift in the dry ingredients and bring the mixture together using a wooden spoon or large metal spoon. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 1-1 ¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and finely grated orange zest and mix to combine. The icing sugar should be smooth and quite thick. Using a palette knife, spread the icing evenly over the cooled cake, dipping the knife into a bowl of hot water if the icing is hard to spread out. Cut into slices to serve.

Edit: Just had to add this pic of Ollie, seems he also loves Rachel Allen's new book Bake! ;o)