CARROT CAKE

 My favourite cake in the world is carrot cake! I think it's because it's different and the cream cheese icing is just divine. Anyway I had some carrots that needed to be eaten so instead of boiling them and turning them into something savory I decided to treat myself...again. I'm going to have to come up with some healthy recipes soon as all this sugar and butter is giving me a serious belly. So here it is a simple carrot cake recipe.

Serves 12

Takes 40-50 minutes to bake

 INGREDIENTS
Cake
350g grated carrot
50g sultanas
110g chopped walnuts
250g self raising flour
400g casing sugar
350ml vegetable oil
2tsp cinnamon
4 eggs

Icing
225g cream cheese
450g icing sugar
110g chopped walnuts
110g butter
1tsp vanilla extract
cornflour if needed

METHOD

CAKE

1. Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 (180C/350F). Ensure your eggs and butter are at room temperature.

2. Line your cake tins with baking paper cut to fit. Dont waste your money on ready circle baking paper just do it yourself, saves you money. Use butter along the sides so the cake doesn't stick.

 3. Grate your carrot.

 4. Chop your walnuts till they are nice and small.

 5. sift together your flour and cinnamon.

 6. Then add your sugar and mix till blended.

 7. Add your eggs and oil slowly mixing after each egg. Keep mixing until well blended.

 8. Add your sultanas, carrots and walnuts to your mixture and keep mixing until well blended.

 9. Divide you cake mix between your two tins and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes until brown and springs back when touched.

  

10. It should look like this, leave to cool and move onto your icing.

 ICING 

 1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth.

 2. Sift in the icing sugar and mix until blended.

 3. Add your walnuts and mix well. As you can see from mine it is a little runny so I added a spoon of cornflour at a time to thicken it until it gave me the texture I wanted.

 4. Cover your cake with the icing and put in the fridge to harden.

 5. Remove and enjoy! Such a beautiful moist cake and so quick and easy. Perfect for afternoon tea and a chat with my friends. Give it a go and let me know what you think.

And suprisingly it didn't leave me with that much of a messy kitchen. Success!