A wonderful moist carrot cake , full of winter spices and as I tell my kids , part of your 5 a day ! Not sure if it still counts ?
The beauty of this is that it is an all in one method ~ I love this ! Less washing up for starters lol
Takes around 30 mins to bake and 20 mins or so to prepare
You will need 2 x 20 cm round cake tins
I mix in my freestanding mixer but you could use a big bowl and a wooden spoon.
I do love a wooden spoon and I still have my mum’s pansion bowl .
Ingredients
- 230 g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 ½ tsp ground mixed spice
- 200 g caster sugar
- 120 g rough chopped walnut pieces and use 100 g for cake mix and save 20g for decoration
- 3 medium eggs
- 150 ml sunflower oil
- 500 g coarsely grated carrot
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees ( 160 fan ) . Gas 4. Grease and line the tins with baking paper or already cut tin inserts
- To make the sponge , sift the flour , baking powder , all the spices into your mixing bowl. Add the sugar and walnuts and mix
- Mix the eggs and the oil separately just enough to combine and then add to the dry ingredients. Add the grated carrots and then Give it all a good mix .
- Divide the mix equally between the two prepared cake tins .
- Bake for 25 – 30 mins until they are golden and a knife can be inserted and come out clean . Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack and remove all the lining paper and allow to cool thoroughly.
- While the cakes are cooling you can make the frosting . It is of course mandatory that whilst spooning the cream cheese into the mixer that you lick the spoon ! Well it is in our house Finely grate the lime zest and ½ teaspoon of juice into a bowl. Add the cream cheese and the butter . Sift the icing sugar over the top of the cheese and butter and mix together . I use a high speed mixer for this. Make sure the butter is soft and at room temp as it combines better . If it is a little runny add more icing sugar and keep in the fridge until needed. And if you have kids let them lick the bowl or lick it yourself and be brave and selfish ! Your worth it !
Now to put it all together
Flip one of the sponges so it is top side down on the plate and fill with some of the cream cheese mix. Use a knife or spatula for this, put as close to the edge as you can . No need to be super tidy with this as it looks better if it is rustic.
Place the other sponge onto this and use remaining frosting to cover just the top. I have no set way of doing this and you can be as neat or tidy or be like me and just whack it all on. Use the remaining walnuts to scatter over the top and there you go !
Tips
You could make double the frosting and cover the entire cake if you wish
You could sprinkle some cinnamon on the top and place walnuts just around the outside
If you were very clever you could make some tiny icing carrots ! But don’t be showing off now ! No one likes a show off lol
