I am a massive carrot cake fan but I constantly try different recipes as I have never quite found the perfect one, so I thought I would give Nigellas recipe a try as I had a craving for carrot cake again. Number 1 the icing for me a carrot cake has to have a cream cheese icing I usually make a marscapone one which I like the sharpness of the cream cheese compliments the sweet cake, however I this may be a new favourite as the soft cheese with butter is the perfect mix between butter icing and cream cheese.
Ingredients
- 200g Self raising flour
- 1/2 tsp of baking powder
- 2 tsp of Ground Ginger
- Pinch of sea salt
- 100g Demerara Sugar
- 75g Caster Sugar
- 200g Carrots
- 200ml Vegetable oil
- 100g Walnuts
- 75g Stem Ginger in syrup
- 2 Eggs
Ingredients for Icing
- 100g Unsalted Butter
- 130g Soft Cream Cheese
- 100g Icing sugar
- Vanilla bean paste
- 25g Walnut Pieces
- 25g Stem Ginger pieces
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees celsius, I used a 2lbs loaf tin as I didnt have a large spring form circle tin, grease and line with baking parchment.
- Sift together the flour, ground ginger, baking powder and salt and mix and make a well in the centre of the bowl.
- Beat together all the wet ingredients – Oil, sugar, and eggs in a large jug or bowl until well combined. Slowly mix this into the dry ingredients it can be quite stiff at this stage.
- Coarsely grate the carrot and add the the cake mix this should loosen the mixture. Chop the walnuts and stem ginger and add to the cake mix.
- Fill the cake tin with the mixture and bake in the oven for 45 minutes until it is golden brown on top.
- Remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Make the icing by beating the softened butter and soft cream cheese until smooth then add the icing sugar and vanilla bean paste and beat until all mixed in.
- Chop the decorative walnuts and stem ginger. Once the cake is cool use a palette knife to spread the icing over the cake, and scatter the walnuts and ginger over the top.
Willey's Weekly Bake 