Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Frosting

I had my parents staying over for the bank holiday weekend and it was lovely catching up with them. We didn’t do anything special as it was typical UK bank holiday weather (raining). Our time together was spent relaxing at home watching movies, playing poker, chilling in the garden (in-between bouts of rain) and eating good food. My parents are my biggest fans and love my cooking and baking, so I made sure they had something delish to eat every day.

I baked an Oreo Cheesecake and my favourite Toffee and Apple Crumble for desserts, which went down a storm. Unfortunately the cheesecake didn’t hang around long enough for me to take pics but it’s without doubt one I will bake again and blog about. I made this Carrot Cake after seeing it in this month’s Good Food magazine; the cinnamon frosting sounded and was amazing. I love carrot cake and this recipe ticked all the boxes and was loved by all. It’s definitely one I would make again and recommend with confidence!

Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Frosting

Ingredients
zest and juice 1 orange
50g sultanas
150ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
2 large eggs
140g soft light brown sugar
85g wholemeal self-raising flour
85g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground mixed spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
140g carrots, coarsely grated
50g walnuts, chopped, plus a few halves to decorate

For the icing
200g soft cheese
50g butter, softened
85g icing sugar, sifted
Pinch ground cinnamon

If you have time to do it the night before, put the orange zest and juice in a bowl with the sultanas. If you don’t have time, on the day simply stir the zest, juice and sultanas together and microwave on Medium for 1-2 minutes.

Heat the oven to 180oc/160oC fan/gas 4 and grease and line the base and sides of a 2lb loaf tin. Whisk together the oil and eggs. Mix together the sugar, flours, mixed spice, cinnamon and bicarb in your largest mixing bowl. Add the sultanas with any juice and zest left in the bowl, grated carrot, walnuts and whisked egg mixture into the dry ingredients, then thoroughly mix with a wooden spoon. Tip into the loaf tin and bake on the middle shelf for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin.

Once cool, remove from the tin and make the icing. With an electric whisk, beat together the soft cheese, butter, icing sugar and cinnamon until smooth. Spread over the top of the cake and decorate with walnut halves.