Carrot Cake

Carrot cake may illustrate the epitome of culinary oxymorons and make you think that by indulging in a slice you would actually be eating one of your daily fruit and vegetable servings and thus doing a good diet deed. This cake is indeed packed with wholesome and nutritious ingredients, but don’t be fooled, it is devilishly "more  rich". Maybe I will post a lighter version some other time but, today, I feel naughty.

Moist and crunchy, soft and creamy, this cake will hit the right spot with a nice cup of tea.

Tried & Tasted Recipe
For the cake

• 350g carrot, grated
• 50g pecans, chopped
• 50g raisins, sultanas or other dried fruit
• 100g wholemeal flour
• 120g plain flour
• 1 or 2 tsps of cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp baking powder (omit if using self raising flour)
• 200ml vegetable oil
• 150g brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• Juice and zest of 1 orange

For the topping:

• 200g cream cheese
• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 50g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• A few more pecans for decoration

Preheat oven to 160°C.
Whisk the oil and soft brown sugar together, add the eggs, carrots, pecans, raisins and orange juice and zest.
Sieve all the dry ingredients together and add to the carrot mix.
Pour into a 20cm/9 inch round/square cake tin (basically a medium to large size tin).
Cook for about 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
To make the topping, whisk the cream cheese and butter until it’s all nice and smooth; only then, add the sifted icing sugar and vanilla.
Once the cake has cooled, spread the topping over it and scatter with a few more pecans.
This cake will keep for a few days in the fridge. Yeah right!