Make a Carrot Cake! ♥

Hi guys! A different post for you this time, it is a baking one! I made a carrot cake the other day, so I thought I would share with you the recipe. It is a really moist cake, very moreish and less calories than chocolate cake, so what better! I did take a few photos, but actually forgot I was documenting it half way through, so sorry about the lack of them, I am useless!

To make one carrot cake, you will need:

* 180g Carrots

* 75g tin Pineapple Chunks

* 200g Self-Raising Flour

*80g Dark brown soft sugar

* 1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

* 2 tsp Mixed Spice

* 150ml Olive Oil (Vegetable oil can be used as an alternative)

* 2 Medium Eggs

* 75g Chopped walnuts as optional extra (I left them out, but you can put them in if you prefer!)

For the Frosting:

*300g Cream Cheese (I used a light one - less calorific)

* 60g Icing Sugar

* Juice of half an orange (I used a whole small Clementine, sweeter and stops the cheese from splitting)

* 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

* White chocolate carrot decorations (optional)

Method

* Pre-Heat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 4), grease and line 2 x 20cm standard sandwich tins. It doesn't have to be neat, I scrunch up kitchen towel, dip it in butter and rub it around the tins. For the greaseproof paper, place the tin on the rolled out paper and cut around it, shove it in the tin! Double anti - stick!

Peel and grate the carrots and leave to one side. I advise getting normal full size carrots, as I had little carrot sticks and it was a complete nightmare, adding in essence of finger and thumb!

Once all grated, then drain the pineapple. This tin was 25p from Sainsburys, pineapple chunks are pineapple chunks! Then set out on kitchen towel to dry the remaining moisture.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate, mixed spice and dark brown sugar using an electric mixer. Then add in the oil and eggs a bit at a time until combined. Then fold in the Carrots, pineapple and walnuts if adding. The mixture didn't look enough to me, but don't worry it turns out perfecto!

Add into the two sandwich tins, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Test with a skewer or knife in the middle, and see if it comes out clean. If it is clean then they are ready to escape the heat! If not, just leave in a few minutes at a time to make sure it doesn't burn. Remove from tins and place on a wire rack.

While they are cooling, make the frosting. Make sure the cream cheese has been in the fridge all this time, because I didn't and had to keep putting it in the freezer to make it not so runny! Put the cream cheese in a large bowl, along with the icing sugar, vanilla extract and orange juice, and mix together. Tip - It may be better doing this with a wooden spoon so it doesn't go completely liquidised with an electric whisk like mine! (Ah well, all tastes good!)

When the cake has cooled, spread the frosting in the middle, sandwich the cakes together and spread all over the top. Lay out choccy carrots to make it look pretty! Mine was a bit drippy on the frosting, but there's nothing better than a good home made cake! 

And you are done! It is easy peasy, simple pimple, and totally tasty!

Enjoy! x

Ciao for now XxX