Friday 21 February 2014

FOOD FRIDAY - CARROT CAKE

“You ask ‘What is life?’ That is the same as asking, ‘What is a carrot?’ A carrot is a carrot and we know nothing more.” - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
 
For Food Friday today, a rich cake full of the goodness of carrots, nuts and honey. Using wholemeal flour and vegetable oil reduces the guilt factor somewhat…
 
Carrot Cake 
Ingredients
4 eggs
150g brown sugar
300 mL vegetable oil
4 large carrots, finely grated
300g wholemeal flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts
½ cup sultanas
1 tsp grated cinnamon, cloves and allspice
150g honey
 
For the icing
125g unsalted butter, softened
250g cream cheese, softened
Finely grated zest of 3 oranges
100g icing sugar, sieved
 
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 25 cm diameter, spring-form cake tin.
Put the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a mixer and beat for about 10 minutes, until foamy and slightly thickened. Add the oil and beat for a few minutes more.
Combine the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and sieve them into the cake mixture. Fold in lightly.
Fold in the grated carrot. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Scrape the honey into a saucepan and wash the container out with a couple of tablespoons of hot water, which you then add into the saucepan with the honey. Set over a low heat and heat gently until the honey is liquid and begins to foam.
Pierce the hot cake all over with a skewer. Carefully pour on the hot honey so it soaks into the cake. Leave in the tin to cool completely before turning out.
To ice it, beat the soft butter in a bowl until smooth and fluffy, then beat in the cream cheese and orange zest. Sweeten with sieved icing sugar. Spread over the cake when it’s cold. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts if desired.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

3 comments:

  1. This sounds wonderful! Will try over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. was just thinking of carrot cake! bookmarked!

    thanks much for sharing and linking over at Food Friday, Nicholas
    enjoy the rest of the week!

    ReplyDelete