I already have a carrot cake recipe on my website and I never thought I would even bother with another one as the first edition is so good. This is Mary Berry’s recipe and she is my idol. I had to try it as it looked so good. I did play around with it a little (sorry Mary) as I like the taste of cinnamon in carrot cakes. Her recipe uses bananas and I will definitely try the bananas the next time around. I omitted that part when I tried this recipe for the first time. In place of the bananas I used a dried fruit cake mix. You could easily just use raisins.
The cake was slightly paler than my previous recipe and I was somewhat worried when I saw that the cake mixture was a little dough-like. And I need to be clear that I would never doubt Mary’s recipe but rather my execution. In anyway, I proceeded and I was met with a moist, soft, fragrant and delicious cake.
I made this into a 3 layer cake with each round measuring 18cm in diameter. It is an impressive looking cake and I will be using this recipe when I need a larger carrot cake. Like with most carrot cakes, you can use pecan, macadamia or walnuts.
If you don’t like dried fruit mix, omit and use the bananas. If you like both, then use 3 bananas and 100g of fruit.
The frosting has to be cream cheese of course. Cream cheese frosting can be quite soft and difficult to work with, especially in hot weather. Therefore icing sugar measurements may vary depending on how soft your icing is. If your icing is too runny, add more icing sugar. The addition of the lemon zest balances out the sweetness.
Ingredients for cake
- 450g self-raising flour
- 2 level tsps baking powder
- 300g light muscovado sugar/brown sugar
- 100g chopped walnuts (can also use pecans)
- 200g carrots coarsely grated
- 4 ripe bananas mashed (optional)
- 200g mixed dried fruit (optional)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 300ml sunflower oil
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
- Grease and line the bottom of 2 x 20cm round pans or 3 x 18cm pans.
- Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl and whisk to combine.
- Stir in the sugar
- Add carrots, nuts and fruit mix or bananas, depending on your choice.
- Using a large spoon mix everything lightly together.
- Make a well in the centre.
- In another bowl or jug, add eggs and oil and mix together.
- Add the wet ingredients into the centre of the cake and mix till everything is well combined.
- Turn the mixture out into the tins and make sure it is evenly distributed between your choice of tins.
- Bake for about 25-35 minutes until golden brown, springy in the centre and shrinking away from the sides of the cake pans.
- A skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean.
- Leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before turning out to completely cool.
- It is helpful to refrigerate you cakes before decorating. Cover in cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour or freeze for half an hour.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 200g full-fat cream cheese at room temperature
- 150g butter
- 4-5 c sifted icing sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Using an electric beater, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
- Add vanilla and zest and beat to combine.
- Add icing sugar in 3 batches and beat well between each addition until icing is well blended, smooth and fluffy.
- Add more icing sugar if the icing is too runny. The consistency should be like a buttercream.
Assemble cakes
- Make sure your layers of cake are completely cooled down. Even better if you could refrigerate your layers for an hour or freeze for half hour.
- Place the first layer on a flat plate or cake board and add about half a cup of frosting.
- Smooth over and repeat with the other layers.
- Cover the entire cake with frosting and decorate as you wish.
