Carrot Cake

I like many grew up on carrot cake, it was always my special treat when my mother dragged me to the antique markets. Here I would indulge in a large iced coffee with whipped cream and ice-cream, and to accompany it a scrumptious slice of decadent carrot cake complete with cream cheese icing. This recipe contains pineapple which may seem an unusual addition but the it creates extra depth in flavour and moisture to the cake.

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Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 1 1/2 - 2 hours

Ingredients

cake

300g plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp mixed spice
200g soft brown sugar
250g caster sugar
350ml mild olive oil or sunflower oil
4 eggs (at room temperature)
300g carrot, peeled and grated
150g drained, canned pineapple pieces, lightly crushed
100g walnuts, roughly chopped

icing

125g cream cheese
75g unsalted butter (softened)
200g icing sugar (sieved)
zest of 1 lemon
25g walnuts, finely chopped

Method

cake

Preheat an oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2. Butter and line a 20cm baking tin with greaseproof paper.
Sieve the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and mixed spice into a mixing bowl fitted with a beater attachment.
Add the sugar, oil, eggs, carrot, pineapple and walnuts to the bowl. spices
Beat on a slow speed for 1 minute, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2-3 minutes until all the ingredients are well combined.
Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and place on the centre shelf of the preheated oven. Leave to bake for 1 1/2-2 hours. To test the cake is ready insert a skewer into the centre of the cake it should come out clean when cooked through
When cooked remove from the oven and leave to stand for 30 minutes before removing from the tin. Leave to cool before icing.
Store the cake covered in the refrigerator.

icing

Place the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and lemon zest in a mixing bowl fitted with a beater. Beat until until creamy
Ice the top of the cooled carrot cake generously and scatter the walnuts over the icing.