Carrot cake & cream cheese frosting
Ingredients
For the sponge
43g raisins
335g brown sugar
167.5g plain flour
167.5g self-raising flour
5g cinnamon
10g mixed spice
20g bicarbonate of soda
4 large eggs
240ml veg oil
335g carrots grated
50ml orange juice
For the buttercream
500g cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
125g pure icing sugar sifted
Method:
Preheat oven to 170 C, grease, and line your tray.
Peel and grate carrots into a bowl and set aside.
In a bowl combine the flour, spices, and bicarb, whisk, and set aside.
In a mixing bowl add the eggs and brown sugar and whisk, add the remaining wet ingredients and whisk again.
Combine all the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until fully incorporated.
Add your raisins and combine them.
Lastly, add your carrots and stir again.
Pour into your 8-inch cake tin and bake for 65-70 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Allow the cake to fully cool before cutting.
Whilst your cake is cooling make your cream cheese frosting.
Whisk softened cream cheese together until smooth, scraping down the bowl to ensure no lumps.
Add your icing sugar and vanilla and whisk on low.
The icing is ready when the mixture is smooth and creamy with no lumps.
Assembling the cake
Once the cake has cooled, slice the cake in half.
Add a generous helping of cream cheese frosting and smooth onto one half of the cake.
Place the other half of the cake on top and lightly sandwich with your hand.
Next place half of the remaining frosting on top of the cake and crumb coat * see below
Place in the fridge to set it slightly.
Using the other half of the frosting with a palette knife smooth the remaining frosting on.
Crush some toasted pecans or any nuts of your choice around the edge of your whole cake.
Now you have a perfectly decorated 8-inch carrot cake.
Eat and enjoy
*A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that’s spread over the cake first. If you’ve ever simply tried to frost a cake with just one thick layer of frosting, you know all too well that little stray crumbs usually get caught in it. A crumb coat prevents that”
