Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake

Anyone of you like carrot cake? I am referring to English style ones...

Yup, chinese carrot cake will be the next recipe I intend to try this weekend if I have the time:))

These carrot cakes are a HIT!!! They are simply yummy indeed...!! When I remove out the cake from the oven, I did not have a good feeling about it...

Carrot Cake

Hehehehe.... I was wrong.... After I put on the icing, I tried a tiny slice... Gosh, it was really good... But it wasn't a favourite for hubby and the girls. Only my helper and myself liked it very much, and that my helper had asked me to make more:-p. I passed some to my girlfriend, whom she, had never tried English Carrot Cake before. She said it tasted very delicious and told me if I had more, she wouldn't mind having a second helping.:))

This is my 1st attempt. And the cake was really soft and moist as shown in the 1st picture. Well, don't be too disappointed, like me, when you take the cake out of the oven... It looks abit dry and unappealing, but the inner.... simply fantastic:))
Most of all, this carrot cake is awfully easy to do... Try it and you will know what I meant... LOL:))

This is the second batch of carrot cake I made. using a bigger tin but end up it was abit dry cos I had baked slightly longer for fear it wasn't baked properly. :-p I brought these cakes for my colleagues to try and everyone loved it very much as well, except for the slightly "dry" part... And I was glad, as the cake was almost gone in the morning:))

Ingredients:

175g light muscovado sugar (I used Golden Caster Sugar)
175ml sunflower oil (I used Canola Oil)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
140g grated carrots
100g raisins (I used 100g walnuts)
grated zest of 1 large orange

175g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour) (I omitted this)

FOR THE FROSTING
175g icing sugar
1½-2 tbsp orange juice

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.
Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients - when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
3. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack.
4. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth - you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.

Have fun:))