{"id":1721,"date":"2010-08-22T11:16:16","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T03:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=1721"},"modified":"2010-08-29T13:01:11","modified_gmt":"2010-08-29T05:01:11","slug":"carrot-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/carrot-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrot cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we go over to friends for a casual dinner\u00a0they will sometimes allow me to bring dessert.\u00a0 I love being able to make things that I know they love.\u00a0 Recently, Aunty J invited us for Friday night pizza so I insisted on providing\u00a0the sweet treat to follow our main and she was happy for me to do so.<\/p>\n

I knew\u00a0that one of her favourite sweet treats is carrot cake.\u00a0 I have made\u00a0one for her previously and she said it was the best she had tasted so I decided to use the same recipe.\u00a0\u00a0It comes from someone that many\u00a0foodies around the world would recognise but I don’t tend to cook\u00a0many of her recipes.<\/p>\n

When I am teaching my classes<\/a>\u00a0some participants ask who my favourite celebrity chef is.\u00a0 My response is always the same.\u00a0\u00a0I don’t have a particular favourite, I think they all serve a purpose and have a following and that variety is always good.\u00a0 This answer is not because I am trying to be diplomatic but rather it is the truth.\u00a0 The chefs I admire tend to be those generally unheard of, those who achieve in their own city and write the odd cookbook or two but that is about it.\u00a0 I know there are some people out there who are religious followers of one or two chefs and only cook from their books\/magazines and that is great if that is what they like to do.\u00a0 I just like to try and find things that others may not.<\/p>\n

Back to this recipe.\u00a0 It is from Donna Hay, or at least from her recipe book, Classics 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (recipe from <\/span>Donna Hay<\/span><\/a>)
\nmakes 22cm (8 – 9inches) round cake\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients
\n<\/span>Carrot cake<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n1\u00bc cups (220g\/7 \u00beozs) brown sugar\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u00be cup (185ml) vegetable oil*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n3 eggs\u00a0\u00a0
\n1\u00bd cups (225g) plain (all-purpose) flour\u00a0\u00a0
\n1\u00bd teaspoons baking powder\u00a0\u00a0
\n1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
\n<\/em>1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
\n\u00bd\u00a0teaspoon ground ginger
\n2 \u00bd cups (300g\/10.5ozs) grated carrots (about 5)
\n\u00bd\u00a0cup (60g) chopped pecan nuts
\n\u00bd\u00a0cup (80g) sultanas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nCream cheese frosting<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0
\n250g (8.8ozs) cream cheese, softened\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u2153 cup (110g) icing (confectioner\u2019s) sugar, sifted*\u00a0
\n<\/em>1 \u00bd tablespoons lemon juice\u00a0<\/p>\n

Preparation\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/em><\/span>Preheat oven to 180\u00b0C (350\u00b0F\/Gas 4).<\/p>\n

For the carrot cake, <\/em>place the sugar and oil in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 2 \u2013 3 minutes. \u00a0Add the eggs gradually and beat well.\u00a0 Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger over the sugar mixture.\u00a0 Add the carrot, pecans and sultanas and mix until just combined.\u00a0 Pour into a greased 22cm (9inch) round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 55 – 60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.\u00a0 Cool in tin.<\/p>\n

For the cream cheese frosting,<\/em> process the cream cheese in a food processor until smooth.\u00a0 Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and process until smooth. \u00a0Spread frosting on the cooled cake.
\n\u00a0
\nMy tips\/alterations:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0*I choose to use less sugar and oil in my cake to make it that little bit healthier.\u00a0 My measurements were 200g (1 cup) brown sugar and 167ml (2\/3 cup) of oil.\u00a0 The cake came out less oily than a normal carrot cake but was still quite moist.\u00a0 I would make it this way again.\u00a0 *When I made the icing I put the icing sugar in the food processor first and pulsed it to break up the lumps, that way it does not need sieving.\u00a0 *I cooked the cake in a 21cm pan at 170\u00b0C for 55 minutes in a fan-forced oven.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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ease: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Basic cake method and\u00a0a food processor makes light work of the icing.\u00a0
\nprep time:<\/strong>\u00a030mins.\u00a0<\/strong>
\ncooking time: 55mins.<\/strong>
\ntotal: 1 hour 15mins.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

taste: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0I love this carrot cake.\u00a0 The pecan nuts and sultanas give it a textural and flavour difference and the carrots that I used were extremely sweet so the flavour that came from them was delicious.\u00a0 The cream cheese frosting is divine and the little bit that was let in the bowl disappeared very quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you make this to take to friends I am sure you won’t have any to bring home :).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

would I make it again:\u00a0\u00a0Yes.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0It is Aunty J’s favourite, so I am sure it will be made again and again.\u00a0 Besides, it is so easy, why wouldn’t I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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When we go over to friends for a casual dinner they will sometimes allow me to bring dessert. I love being able to make things that I know they love. Recently, Aunty J invited us for Friday night pizza so I insisted on providing the sweet treat to follow our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[78,81,47,29,45,27],"tags":[6,4,118,102,116,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1721"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1737,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721\/revisions\/1737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}