Carrotty carrot cake
I was looking for an easy and foolproof carrot cake recipe to bake quickly for a friends birthday. After browsing through 3-4 recipe books and a few recipes online, Paul Hollywood's carrot cake recipe caught my attention. The reason it appealed to me the most was that it asked for the least amount of oil in comparison to almost all other recipes which asked for an equal portion of oil to sugar to flour. A few tweaks and an an hour and half later, I was the proud baker of this lovely carrot cake. The beautiful creamcheese frosting only adds to the richness and no need to worry about the left overs as a bowl of frosting next to the cake will be gone before the you know!
Ingredients: 1 cup brown sugar 2 cups flour (self raising) 3 carrots, finely grated 125 ml oil (sunflower) 50 gm soft melted butter 3 whole eggs, 1 egg yolk 2 teaspoons spice mix (Nutmeg, Cinnamon, dry ginger, Allspice) zest of half orange and one lemon Juice of half an orange a pinch of salt half teaspoon baking powder Method: 1. Line an 9" cake tin with baking paper and preheat oven to 180 degrees 2. Mix dry ingredients together - Flour, baking powder, salt, spice mix 3. Mix oil and brown sugar in a big mixing bowl. No need to beat, a few turns till well mixed are enough. Add in the melted butter 4. Add a couple of spoonfuls of dry flour mixture and fold in 5. Crack one egg, mix till combined 6. Alternate with remaining eggs, yolk and flour 7. Add Carrots, orange and lemon zest and orange juice 8. Once all ingredients are thoroughly mixed, tilt into the prepared pan and bake for 1-1.15 hour checking every few minutes after the first 50 minutes as baking times will vary depending upon oven, pans used and ingredients used 9. Let the cake cool down on a wire rack before frosting
Cream Cheese frosting Ingredients: 250 gm Cream cheese (Philadelphia, full fat) 400 gm Icing sugar 50 gm butter zest of 1 orange (optional) Method: 1. Mix all ingredients well to a smooth consistency. Add sugar as required to achieve peaks 2. Cut the cake in two halves and spread the cream cheese frosting liberally