Carrot and walnut cake

Carrot cake is a sweet and moist cake that is a popular dessert in many countries and is often enjoyed as a simple treat with a cup of coffee or tea. There are many variations of this cake, however I wanted to share my staple recipe, which is loved by my friends and family.  The carrot flavour isn't too intense (although you can add more carrots to the mix if you prefer a more intense flavour) and the icing recipe is also below.  The sponge is super moist and delicious. 

I recommend making 2 tiers to make it that extra bit more impressive.  For this you can either use 2 identical 18-20cm cake tins or if you only have 1 tin, then you can bae one layer at a time.  An electric whisk is also preferable (and will make the preparation super quick) but not essential. 

Ingredients 

For the icing: 

• 100g butter (preferably unsalted)
• 300g icing sugar 
• 100g soft/cream cheese 

For the cakes:

• 270g self-raising flour 
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 330g light brown sugar 
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 4 eggs 
• 100g natural greek yoghurt 
• 230ml vegetable oil 
• 3-4 carrots (grated)
• 1/2 orange skin zested
• approx 100g walnuts 
• a pinch of salt

Method

Cakes 

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees and line your cake tins with baking paper. 
2. Combine the flour, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon in a bowl and mix together with a pinch of salt. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine the vegetable oil, 4 eggs, yoghurt and orange zest in a bowl and whisk. 
4. Combine the wet mixture with the dry mixture.
5. Add in the grated carrots and around 50g or half of the walnuts.
6. Mix well and spread evenly between the two cake tins.  It is helpful to use a baking scale to ensure each layer will be the same size. 
7. Bake for around 25 minutes and check it is cooked using a wooden skewer. Once baked, leave in the tins to cool down. 

Icing 

1. Ensure the butter is softened and beat it together with the icing sugar before adding 50% of the cream cheese.  Once the cheese is added, beat again before adding the rest of the cheese.  
2. Use half of the icing in the middle of the two cake layers and the other half to cover the top of the cake.  Finish by adding some walnuts for decoration.