Carrot Cake!

So yesterday I was doing some uni work with a friend and she had this carrot slice. I've never been much of a fan of carrot cake but I tried some and it was so delicious that I went home and made a carrot cake! It can be easily made vegan or gluten free by adding an egg substitute and/or gluten free flour and using a soy cream cheese or just omitting the icing.

I used a Donna Hay recipe which turned out so amazingly moist! And hoorah for not having a teepee shaped cake (always happens to me).

Carrot Cake

 

1¼ cups brown sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1½ cups plain flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
2½ cups grated carrot (about 5 carrots)
½ cup chopped pecan nuts
½ cup sultanas 


Cream Cheese Icing

250g cream cheese, softened
⅓ cup icing (confectioner's) sugar, sifted
1½ tablespoons lemon juice


Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Place the sugar and oil in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 2–3 minutes. Add the eggs gradually and beat well. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger over the sugar mixture.

Add the carrot, pecans and sultanas and mix until just combined. Pour into a greased 22cm-round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 55–60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in tin.

For the cream cheese frosting, process the cream cheese in a food processor until smooth. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and process until smooth. Spread frosting on the cooled cake. Serves 8.

*I used soft dark brown (muscovado) sugar instead of the normal brown sugar to give it a more molassesy flavour and omitted the sultanas because I'm not a big fan. Also, softened the cream cheese and stirred in the icing sugar/lemon which worked fine; no need to wash a food processor.

  The ginger and cinnamon powders as well as dark brown (muscovado) sugar give it a gingerbready quality which is really nice and the carrot becomes so soft and blends right in, no unpleasant stringy carrot bits.