This was my very first attempt at making a carrot cake. I decided on this recipe the first time I saw it. I mean come on! With this much - cinnamon, walnuts, pineapple, and orange zest - what could possibly go wrong? Using a stand mixer made it super simple, and I love how casual the icing is. This is another one of those cakes you are going to want to eat with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Carrot Cake Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 big carrots, peeled
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups rice bran or other neutral vegetable oil
finely grated zest of 1 orange
2/3 cup roughly chopped walnuts (optional)
227g tin crushed pineapple, drained in a sieve
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 160˚C (325˚F) and line the base and sides of a 26cm cake tin with baking paper. Sift all dry ingredients together into a big bowl and stir to combine. Grate the carrots into large bowl of stand mixer. Add the eggs, oil and zest to the carrots and do a quick stir to combine, you want the carrots a bit more chopped but not mush. Mix in the dry ingredients slowly, and spoon the pineapple and walnuts on top. Fold all together until the flour is well incorporated.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake 65-70 minutes or until a skewer poked into the center comes out clean. Turn the oven off but leave the cake in for 5 more minutes, then take out and leave to cool in the tin before removing to frost. (Frosting recipe below).
Orange Cream Cheese Icing / Frosting Ingredients:
25g butter at room temperature
250g cream cheese at room temperature
finely grated zest of 1 orange
3 cups icing sugar
Directions:
For the frosting, using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, mix everything together. This frosting is also delicious on muffins and orange danish rolls so save your left overs!
Original Recipe Source: From The Kitchen