–
Going out for tea or coffee seems to be the new “eating out”……………(?). In my opinion, every good tea or coffee shop should have 4 priorities as follows:
1. Lovely tea pots- preferably with hand- made cosies (I know that makes me sound old but I don’t care, I just love them).
2. A superb cream tea.
3. They allow well behaved dogs into the garden/ courtyard and provide a dog water bowl…………and the staff and all other customers all “ooh and aaah” at the cute spotty dog.
4. A beautiful carrot cake taking pride of place on the counter that tastes as good as it looks.
I don’t know whether it is the allure of something healthy in a cake (very unlikely) or the contrasts of textures- moist cake interspersed with crunchy nuts and juicy raisins against cool cream cheese icing. Or perhaps the perfection is in the balance of flavours- spice, freshness, a little earthiness, a little citrus……………
I have tried tinkering with lots of carrot cake recipes and I think the best ones manage to combine all of the above factors. My current favourite is this recipe which was posted to me by Louise Waterman of Fused Glass Designs (http://www.fused-glass-designs.com/) . As well as being an amazing glass artist (please see review post Beautiful, Colourful Art), Louise is a busy mum who enjoys cooking Scrummy food to fuel lots of Guernsey outdoorsy, family fun. It is superbly easy to make and does not contain any oil which can often spoil the flavours. This is amazing. I urge you to make it even if you already have a favourite carrot cake recipe in your repertoire.
Ingredients
340 g grated carrots (save time and your knuckles-grate in a food processor if you have one)
140 g unsalted butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
200 g self raising flour
200 g light soft brown sugar
0.5 tsp salt
2 tsp ground mixed spice
85 g raisins
85 g walnuts, roughly chopped
3 tbsp milk
2 tsp baking powder
zest of a lemon or orange
For the icing:
200 g pot of cream cheese (such as Philidelphia)
100 g icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
ground cinnamon to decorate (optional)
Tin
A square 20 cm cake tin, lined
Oven
Preheat the oven to 180C (160- 170C Fan)/ Gas Mark 4
Method
1. Melt the butter and pour it over the grated carrots in a large mixing bowl.
2. Stir in the eggs followed by all the remaining cake ingredients (not the icing!).
3. Give everything a really good mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until all is well combined and slightly paler in colour.
4. Scrape into the lined tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes. When the cake is ready it should be lightly golden and feel springy to touch. A skewer inserted into the middle will come out clean.
5. Turn out of the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
6. To make the icing: beat the icing sugar into the cream cheese followed by the vanilla and lemon juice until you have a smooth icing. Do not over-beat the mixture as it will go runny.
7. When the cake is completely cool, spread the icing over and sprinkle with a teeny bit of cinnamon ( if you like cinnamon, otherwise leave the cake naked).
ScrummyWalks 