Carrot Cake
Ella Hogg
I found this recipe in Mary Berry’s Fast Cakes. Her recipes are always so easy to follow and work every time. I have always been a fan of the carrot cake but never made one myself until I had all of this time on my hands (with school being closed) and decided to do some baking. This particular cake is perfect for those like me who love cake but find most recipes over-sweet. It is just the right balance of sweet and savoury and includes fresh ingredients; carrots and bananas which are always nice to have in your baking. It is a wonderfully gooey cake that is perfect with or without the topping and can be decorated with walnut halves. My family and I certainly loved it. Enjoy!
Ingredients
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
150g (5oz) light muscovado sugar (I used demerara sugar, whatever you have)
50g (2oz) walnuts, chopped (Not 100% necessary but they do add to it)
100g (4oz) carrots, coarsely grated
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
150ml sunflower oil (or another cooking oil if you don’t have sunflower oil, I used rapeseed oil)
For Topping
50g (2oz) butter, softened
50g (2oz) full-fat cream cheese
150g (5oz) icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan 150°C/Gas 4. Grease a 20cm deep cake tin and line the base with non-stick baking paper.
- Sift together the flour and baking powder and stir in the sugar. Add the nuts, carrots, and bananas and mix lightly.
- Add the eggs and oil and beat until well blended.
- Turn the mixture into the tin and bake for about 1 ¼ hours, or until golden brown and shrinking from the sides of the tin (mine was finished in an hour). A skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean.
- Turn out, remove the paper and leave to cool on a wire rack.
To make the topping, place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth.