Recipe: The Carrot Cake You have To Bake

I am so thrilled with my first harvest of balcony carrots.

This is an heirloom St Valery variety famed for its flavour and wondrous perfume.

I grew them from seed ( the best way to grow carrots).

The seed stock was from Diggers.

They taste extraordinary. Fresh, clean - almost palette-cleansing. I saved some for a salad...

and the rest went into this carrot cake.

RECIPE: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

(adapted from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros)

Ingredients:
4 eggs, lightly beaten

250g caster sugar
¾ cup light olive oil or sunflower oil

2 ½ cups plain flour

¾ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

400g grated carrots

½ cup chopped walnuts

Cream cheese icing

180g butter, room temperature

250g icing sugar

180g cream cheese

3 drops vanilla extract

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a 24cm spring form cake pan.

Whip together the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy, then whisk in the oil. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and cardamom powders. Add to egg mixture and whisk to incorporate well. Add the carrots and the walnuts and mix well.

Pour the batter into a tin and bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. The cake will have risen quite high. Leave to cool in the tine and then turn out onto a wire rack.

For the icing: Whip together the butter and the icing sugar until combined. Add the cream cheese and whip until stiff and fluffy. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and combine.

Spread over top of cake (or halve the cake and use a little icing to sandwich the two layers together).

Put the kettle on to boil, put your feet up and enjoy!

moist and light...

.. a true crowd pleaser!