Recipe: Carrot Cake

    03 February 2011

 

Indulgent & delicious with a healthy dose of grated organic carrots 

 

 


Because carrots make up such a substantial part of the ingredients it’s a very easy cake to make- near impossible to overmix and difficult to overbake. Studded with walnuts and sultanas and fragrant with warm spices it’s lovely for a special afternoon tea. 



You can even skip the icing and serve the cake on its own, or try making an exotic version with our purple carrots when they’re in store (the cake photographed above contains a combination of different coloured carrots). So long as the ingredients you use are fresh and organic and you’re well prepared you can’t go wrong!


 

This recipe makes a generous sized cake- about 10 slices- so it’s perfect for a birthday cake. You can even bake it as cute cupcakes instead, reducing the cooking time to about 20 minutes.


Ingredients (makes one cake)

3 x 60 g eggs, lightly beaten

150 g / 2/3 cup raw sugar

100 ml sunflower oil (or other neutral flavoured oil)

185 g / 1.5 cups Demeter whole wheat flour

½ tsp sea salt

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice (such as ground cloves, ginger, allspice or grated nutmeg)

350 g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

½ cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

½ cup sultanas

Icing

60 g unsalted butter, softened

80 g / 2/3 cup icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

60 g Paris Creek Swiss or German style quark, at room temperature

2 tbsp shredded coconut, lightly toasted


Method

1. Preheat oven 180°C. Lightly grease a 20 cm cake pan and line with baking paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar until creamy, then whisk in the oil until it is well combined.

3. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and spices evenly over the wet mix and fold them through. Then add the carrots, walnuts and sultanas and keep on folding together until everything is well combined.

4. Tip the batter into the prepared pan and roughly flatten the surface. Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating pan midway through. Check whether the cake is ready by tapping lightly in the centre: it will spring back rather than collapse when done. Note that the cooking time will vary according to the moisture content in the carrots.

5. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn onto a wire rack and cool completely.

6. To make icing beat the butter with a wooden spoon until creamy. Sift over the icing sugar and beat until it’s well combined. Add vanilla and quark and beat them in too.

7. Use a pallet knife or spatula to spread the icing over the top of the cake and finish with the coconut.


1 Comments

  • Cassia, March 16th, 2012 on 4:54 pm

    Yum! This one looks especially nice! You could also try it with honey instead of agave syrup for an even more nutritious result! :)

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