RECIPE: Carrot Cake
Cake making needs to be very precise and recipes have to be followed exactly and techniques and quantities followed to the letter. We recommend weighing out all ingredients before starting to mix and remember not to over-mix your cake mixture as this can make them heavy, as it removes essential air from the mix.
If you like your carrot cake iced this recipe calls for a delicious cream cheese icing.
Ingredients
-4 eggs
-¾ cup brown sugar
-¾ cup rapeseed oil
-2 cups cake flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-pinch salt
-½ cup desiccated coconut
-1½ cups carrots (+ 4 carrots)
-1 cup pineapple cut into very small pieces (use tinned
unsweetened pineapple if fresh not available)
-1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
-2 teaspoons cinnamon
-1 teaspoon mixed spice
-¼ cup chopped walnuts, pecan nuts or pistachios
FOR THE ICING
-225g/8 oz cream cheese
-140g/5 oz icing sufar, sifted
-zest and juice of 1 lemon
Method
– Beat the eggs well and then add the sugar and oil and continue to mix together well.
-Mix all the dry ingredients (i.e. flour, baking powder, salt, coconut and spices) together in a bowl.
-Grate the carrots using a fine microplane.
-Mix the grated carrot and chopped pineapple into the egg mixture.
-Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and mix together well.
-Pour into a l lb size greased and papered loaf tin
-Bake in oven 350ºF/160ºC for 1 – 1½ hours. Check to see that the cake is done by inserting a
skewer into the centre of the cake – if it comes out clean it is baked.
-Allow cake to cool on a cooling rack before cutting.
-For the cream cheese icing, combine the cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon juice and zest in a bowl. Whisk until smooth. Make sure the cake is totally cold before icing.