Moist, juicy, dense, fruity, this is the queen of all carrot cakes. I have now abandoned all previous carrot cake recipes in favour of this one
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Ingredients
Cake
4 large eggs
350g caster sugar
225ml vegetable oil (or any other flavourless oil)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
500g carrots, peeled and grated (about 5 carrots)
200g pineapple chopped roughly into 1cm cubes, and 2 tbsp fresh pineapple juice (you can squeeze it yourself)
zest of 1 orange
juice of ½ orange
100g walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
2 x 20cm round tins, buttered and with base lined with baking parchment
Icing
200g butter, at room temperature
500g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
200g icing sugar, sieved
Method
Cake
- Preheat oven to 170˚C.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until smooth, resembling a thin custard. Whisk in oil and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, sieve together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt. Gently fold these dry ingredients into the egg mixture.
- Stir grated carrots, chopped pineapple, pineapple juice, orange zest, orange juice and chopped walnuts into the mixture. Divide mixture between the tins and place in middle of the oven to bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to cook on a wire rack, then wrap in tin foil/cling film and place in fridge overnight. This is to aid the icing process. If you don’t have the luxury of time, place cakes in the freezer for half an hour before icing.
Icing
- Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until soft, creamy and shiny. Add in cream cheese and sieved icing sugar and continue beating until completely smooth. If the mixture is of an almost runny consistency, place in fridge for half an hour.
- Sandwich the two cakes together using a quarter of the mixture. Use the rest to coat the top and sides. Chill in the fridge before serving. Keeps well for several days in the fridge.
Adapted from Gail’s Artisan Bakery Cookbook
