Although usually thought of as American, carrot cakes and puddings have a very long history in Britain. Canteen’s recipe for carrot cake is moist and quite spicy with a generous layer of soft-cheese icing. It’s incredibly popular with our afternoon tea-and-cake customers.
Ingredients
- 400 g caster sugar
- 300 ml sunflower oil
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 eggs, separated
- 150 g grated carrots
- 300 g self-raising white flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150 g walnuts, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground mace
- ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 grated orange zest
Icing
- 250 g soft butter
- 300 g incing sugar
- 500 g full-fat soft cheese
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Whisk together the caster sugar, oil, eggs and yolks with an electric mixer until pale and thick. Stir in the carrots.
- Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda. Fold into the whisked mixture together with the walnuts, spices and orange zest.
- Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff. Fold into the cake mixture.
- Use baking parchment to line a 30 x 20 cm cake tin that is 6 cm deep. Spoon in the cake mixture.
- Bake for 35–40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack in the tin.
- To make the icing, beat the butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the soft cheese and beat for a further 20 seconds.
- Spread the icing over the top of the cake and roughen the surface with a fork. Chill for 1 hour. Cut into squares for serving.
