Recipe – Easy Easter Carrot Cake

By Lee Price on April 17, 2012 in Food

Instead of leaving the carrots out for the Easter Bunny, why not put them to better use in this delicious cake? A simple one-bowl recipe like this means you can whip up a cake for morning tea in next to no time.

For those of you thinking that you would rather leave your vegetables out of your baked goods, fear not. The carrot softens and melts into the cake during the baking process. Back in the day when sugar was expensive, carrots were used as an alternative sweetener because they’re one of the sweetest vegetables around and they were cheap. They’re also a great source of Vitamin A.

While it looks like quite a long list of ingredients, you should have most of them on hand in your pantry cupboard.

Ingredients (for the cake)

¾ cup self-raising flour
¾ cup wholemeal plain flour
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
¾ cup walnuts
2 cups grated carrot
1 tbsp coconut
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp cinnamon

Ingredients (for the icing)

60g cream cheese
30g butter
1½ cups icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 150°C. Grease and line a cake tin with baking paper and set aside.

2. Place all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

3. Pour into the prepared tin and place in the middle of the oven for about 60 minutes.

4. Check it now and see how it looks. It will most likely need around 90 minutes in total, depending on your oven.

5. Place a tray underneath to catch any leaks (the oil can drip a little bit during the baking process). The cake is ready when you can stick a skewer in it and pull it out clean.

6. Once it’s completely cooled, make the icing. Beat together the cream cheese and butter with an electric hand beater until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Top with crushed leftover walnuts if you have any.

Have you got a great recipe that you would like to share? Send it through to operationjamjar@y7mail.com and you could see it in a future issue of The Beast. For more recipes and thrifty cooking ideas visit operationjamjar.blogspot.com.