Recipe: Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Another repost from my personal blog () the original recipe is taken from the Edmond's Cookbook a "family favourites" type cookbook which is a must in all good New Zealand homes. It's edited somewhat through years of abuse.



Carrot Cake

3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 cups self raising flour
1 cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
3 cups of grated carrot
1/2 cup of walnuts roughly chopped
1 teaspoon of grated orange rind
1/4 cup of crushed pineapple

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius


• Use a large mixing bowl, metal is best due to the oilly consistency of the cake.


• Start with the eggs and oil, for best consistency you want large eggs of 68g or more. For oil I use olive oil however for lightness it is best to use canola. Beat eggs until thick and stir in the oil.


• Sift the flour and spice into the egg mixture and mix the sugar in at the same time.


• Grate the carrot and fold into the cake mixture with the pineapple. If crushed pineaple cannot be found then dice tinned pineapple well; pineapple in juice rather than syrup is better for the sweetness of the cake.


• Fold through the orange rind and walnuts, try and evenly mix the nuts through the cake.


• Pour the mixture into a tin, the nuts make deep tins inadviseable as they settle in the mixture. A ring tin allows even cooking and nut distribution.


• Bake for 40 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.


• After baking leave the cake in the tin for at least 10 minutes before attempting to remove as this prevents sticking and gives the cake time to shrink.


• Turn onto a cooling rack and leave until cool enough to ice.

Cream Cheese Icing

1 teaspoon butter
4 tablespoons cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

• Beat butter and creamcheese together until a cream consistency


• Add sugar slowly and mix well


• Towards the end add the lemon juice and enough sugar to retain a frosting consistency


• Once cake is cool spread the icing over the cake and cool to set