Carrot Cake

I’m not sure if its just me but now Spring has sprung and things are getting a little better – its time for carrot cake.

Carrot cake is a classic amongst the cake flavours available, everywhere you go they will have some variation of it and thats perfect – its a tender and most cake that can’t be faulted, especially when partnered with a cream cheese icing, which is tangy and works perfectly with this cake as its not a super heavy buttercream.

I don’t know what it is about carrot cake but whenever I have it, it reminds me of spring and that time around Easter – I can’t think of a reason but this is fitting for whatever reason.

This is just my version of a carrot cake, I have included walnuts and raisins because I like them – a very welcome addition.

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

Cake:

225g butter, at room temperature.

225g light brown sugar.

4 eggs.

225g self raising flour.

3/4 tsp baking powder.

2 tsp ground cinnamon. 

1 tsp ground ginger. 

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg. 

60g walnuts, roughly chopped.

60g raisins.

1 orange, zest.

225g grated carrot.

 

Cream Cheese Icing:

350g butter.

350g icing sugar.

200g cream cheese, at room temperature.

 

Decoration:

Walnuts, roughly chopped.

 

Method:

To get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. I like to start by weighing up all of my ingredients, preparing my cake tins and getting any equipment I may need such as a stand mixer and spatula.

I like to make the cakes first but you can work in whichever order works best for you!

To start on the cakes, take a mixing bowl and place in the butter and sugar, cream them together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency (for me this was around 7-10 minutes).

Now you can add in the eggs, one at a time beating well in-between each addition – take your time when adding the eggs.

Once all of the eggs have been added you can go ahead and give the bowl a good scraping down – this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully incorporated into the mixture previously.

Add in the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed until the dry ingredients have been incorporated.

Now you can add in carrot and raisins, mixing in until they have been fully incorporated.

Give the bowl a good scraping down to ensure any bits that wasn’t fully worked in from earlier on.

Divide the cake batter between your 3×6 inch cake tins, spread and level then bake for 30 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

To make the cream cheese icing, take a bowl and place in the butter and icing sugar – beat the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency, this may take a little while.

Once you’ve achieved the desired consistency, you can gradually add in the soft cheese – don’t add it all at once, please take your time when adding it into the mix.

Now you have your cakes baked and cooled and the buttercream made, you can go ahead and finish the cake. I kept things super simple by not decorating the sides of the cake, as I don’t like a lot of frosting on cakes and this is the perfect way for me.

I simply pipe blobs around the outer edge , then fill the centre in, placing the next layer of cake on top and repeat the process. On the very top, I simply pipe rows of blobs and get a flower looking pattern on top – I cover the centre with some roughly broken walnuts and then its done!

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.