A favourite by Annabel Langbein
Ingredients:
- 1 cup neutral oil, ie. canola or grapeseed
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup wholemeal flour
- 1 cup plain / all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3 cups grated carrot (about 3 medium carrots)
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp orange juice
Cream Cheese Icing
Note: I use this quantity of icing when I divide the above batter into 2 cakes. To make one cake, I would half the icing quantities.
- 75g butter, at room temperature
- 250g cream cheese (not the spreadable kind)
- finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 4 cups icing / confectioner’s sugar
- shredded zest of 1 orange
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160ºC. Grease a 25cm-diameter loose-bottomed cake tin and line the base with baking paper (alternatively you can make 2 cakes – see note re: icing above).
- Beat oil, sugar and eggs in a food processor/mixer to combine. Add both flours, salt, cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger and grated carrot and pulse again to just combine – don’t over-mix.
- Dissolve baking soda in orange juice and pulse into cake mixture.
- Spread into prepared tin(s) and bake until the top bounces back when pressed and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (55–60 minutes).
- Allow to cool before icing with Cream Cheese Icing.
- To make the Cream Cheese Icing, place softened butter, cream cheese, lemon zest and juice and icing / confectioner’s sugar in a food processor. Blend until smooth then spread over top and sides of cake. Garnish with orange zest.