Summary

Servings: 
15
Prep time: 
20 minutes
Cooking time: 
45 minutes

Description

Delight friends with an afternoon tea that includes this easy carrot cake. You can bake the cake, freeze it and just drizzle over the icing on the day

Ingredients

  • 175g light muscovado sugar
  • 175ml sunflower oil
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 140g grated carrots, about 3 medium carrots
  • 100g raisins
  • zest of one orange
  • 175g self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
  • 175g icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoon orange juice

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/Fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
  2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange zest.
  3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients - when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
  4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cook on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point).
  5. Beat together the icing sugar and the orange juice until smooth. You want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldy drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.