My favourite carrot cake recipe with double cream cheese icing
This is my favourite carrot cake recipe, it's incredibly soft, moist and zesty from the added orange peel. I also covered it generously with cream cheese icing... I'm not a big fan of nuts in carrot cake so I didn't add any, but if you'd like some just add around 100g of walnuts or other nuts of your choice.
Ingredients
for the cake:
225g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teasoon allspice
225g soft dark brown sugar
zest of 1/2 an orange
3 medium eggs
150 ml rapeseed oil
250g grated carrorts
for the icing:
400g full fat cream cheese
100g unsalted butter (very soft)
120g icing sugar
zest of 1/2 orange
for the orange peel:
1 orange
200g granulated sugar
two 20 cm (8 inch) cake pans, greased with butter and dusted with flour (like this)
Instructions
for the cake:
- sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and spices
- add the grated zest, carrots, eggs and rapeseed oil
- mix with a wooden spoon until combined
- divide the batter between the two tins and bake for around 25 minutes in 180 C (350 F)
- take out of the oven and let cool on a wire rack
for the icing:
- with an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, beat together the cream cheese and butter
- slowly mix in the icing sugar with a spoon
- spread on one cake and top with the other one
- with a round bladed knife, cover the top and sides with the remaining icing
for the orange peel:
- peel the orange with an orange peeler
- with a sharp knife or a pastry cutter, cut the peels into thin strips
- put the orange peel and sugar into a smal pan and cover with 250ml of water
- bring to boil then drain and cover with fresh water
- repeat this step 3 times
- bring the orange peel to boil one more time and continue boiling for 15 minutes
- take of the heat and leave to steep in the syrup water for around 1 hour
- drain and decorate the cake
Enjoy :)