Carrot Cake

This recipe was a first time for us. It was a birthday cake for a family member and luckily it turned out really well. This one is a 'make again' and will become part of our repertoire!
It makes a big dense cake and the icing mixture makes a lot - probably enough to ice the sides too.

Cake

• 1 cup neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed
• 2 cups raw or white sugar
• 4 small eggs
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 cup plain / all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 3 cups grated carrot (about 3 medium carrots)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp orange juice

Cream Cheese Icing

• 75g butter, at room temperature
• 250g cream cheese (not the spreadable kind)
• finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 4 cups icing / confectioner's sugar
• shredded zest of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 160ºC fanbake. Grease a 25cm-diameter loose-bottomed cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Place oil, sugar and eggs in the bowl of a food processor and whizz to combine. Add both flours, salt, cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger and grated carrot and pulse again to just combine – don’t over-mix.

Dissolve baking soda in orange juice and pulse into cake mixture. Spread into prepared tin and bake until the top bounces back when pressed and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (55–60 minutes). Allow to cool before icing with Cream Cheese Icing.

To make the Cream Cheese Icing, place softened butter, cream cheese, lemon zest and juice and icing / confectioner's sugar in a food processor. Blend until smooth then spread over top and sides of cake. Garnish with orange zest.

Variation:

Add 1 cup raisins and / or ½ cup chopped walnuts.