Embracing a classic – the humble carrot cake. This simple classic has been slightly reimagined, just in the form of a loaf cake.
For me personally, carrot cake is one of the most spring orientated recipes there is. It’s not one of my favourite cakes but when Spring starts to bloom, it’s the ideal cake to enjoy.
Traditionally you’d use just light brown sugar but to add a little different flavour, I used half light and half dark brown sugar and skipped the walnuts (mostly because they’re not my favourite but you can add them in if you like them). I used raisins but like the walnuts, they can be skipped out of the recipe if you’d like.
On this occasion, I was making two loaves – sharing is caring at the end of the day, right? Seeing as cake helps to lift the mood while in lockdown.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
Cake:
150g butter, at room temperature.
75g light brown sugar.
75g dark brown sugar.
3 eggs.
1 tsp baking powder.
100g raisins.
150g grated carrots.
Cream cheese icing:
150g icing sugar.
25g butter.
65g soft cheese
orange zest.
Method:
Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, line your loaf pan with parchment paper, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you may need such as a stand mixer and loaf pan.
To start on the recipe, grab a mixing bowl and place in the butter, light brown and dark sugar and beat them together until they are well combined. The mixture should be lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.
You can then add in your eggs, roughly one at a time, beating well in-between each addition until all of your eggs have been added.
Then go ahead and add in the grated carrot and raisins and mix them in until they are fully incorporated. If you notice the mixture changes and becomes split/curdled, don’t worry – it’s expected due to the amount of moisture being added into the recipe.
Give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been worked into the mixture.
You can now add in the dry ingredients and just mix them in until, they are fully incorporated. Try your best not to over work the cake batter, otherwise the end cake will take on a tough texture.
Take the bowl and give it a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits of dry ingredients that haven’t fully worked in.
Transfer the cake batter into a lined loaf tin and place into the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean, when inserted into the centre.
While the cake is baking or cooling down, you can make the cream cheese icing.
The icing is really easy to make. start by grabbing a large mixing bowl and placing in the icing sugar, butter and orange zest – then mix these together until they are combined, they won’t come together fully as the mixture is too dry at this point. At this point, the mixture should be clumping together.
Add in the cream cheese and mix on a medium-high speed. At the start, the mixture may look very liquid – don’t worry, as you whisk it together, it thickens and becomes a much more stable icing to work with.
You’re looking for the perfect spreadable/pipable consistency, it should hold its shape but still be pliable enough to work with. Once you achieve this, you can transfer the icing into a piping bag fitted with your choice of nozzle and set aside until needed later on.
Once your cake is baked and cooled, you can place the icing on top of the cake and spread it out to ensure a roughly even layer is on top.
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.
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