Carrot cake...is that you?!

Since I didn’t have work today, I thought it’d be the perfect time to bake something sweet and intricate; well intricate for me – we all know my fear of frosted cakes. I decided on a carrot cake recipe I’ve had marked for a while in my Abel and Cole cookbook.

I followed the cake recipe exactly but slightly modified the icing. This cake is moist, soft and dense in the middle, and the icing is the perfect compliment. I always thought carrot cake was supposed to be a boring dessert but this is anything but.

(Adapted from the Abel and Cole Cookbook, 2006)

The cake:

6.5 oz sugar

6 oz vegetable oil

2 eggs

5 oz self-raising flour

4.5 oz grated carrots (appx. 1 large carrot)

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Butter and extra flour for greasing

The icing:

4 oz cream cheese at room temp

3 oz butter at room temp

5 oz confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1 tsp lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Start by beating the sugar, oil and eggs together. Once the mix is even, add the flour while continually beating. Then add the remainder of the cake ingredients. Grease an 8” loaf pan with butter and dust with flour. Pour in the batter and bake for 35 min, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cake for ten minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack. Cool completely.
To make the icing, beat all the ingredients together and smooth over the top of cake. When finished, refrigerate for at least 30 min, to let the cake and icing get to know each other a bit.