Today is my lovely colleague Olivia's birthday - Happy Birthday! - and thus it was a perfect excuse to try a new recipe. As carrot cake is one of her favorites (I did sneakily find out!) it was an easy choice.
I have never made carrot cake before despite the fact that I genuinely enjoy eating it. What has always put me off was the thought of having to grate carrots. Don't get me wrong I do love carrots, grated or not, but I usually hurt myself when being left to my own devises with the cheese grater (or should I say carrot grater in this instance?). Maybe the gods were on my side for once, maybe I just got lucky but somehow I managed to grate 300g of carrot without causing serious damage to any of my fingers.
One of my most trusted cookbooks that I like to experiment with is the Hummingbird Bakery. Lots of people keep telling me that they think their recipes are too sweet but I have always found them delightful and easy to make. Unlike some other cookbooks that have severely disappointed me, I get a 99% success rate with the Hummingbird recipes. This time I took their traditional recipe for carrot cakes and turned it into cupcakes.
Here is what you will need:
- 300g soft brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 300ml sunflower oil
- 300g plain flower
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 300g grated carrots
- 50g walnuts and pecans
- 600g icing sugar
- 100g butter
- 250g cream cheese
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line the cupcake tins with cases.
- Bang the sugar, eggs and oil into a bowl and mix until smooth and even. I used my electric whisk for that because it is easier.
- Slowly add the flower, bicarb and baking powder to the sugar mix. Then add the spices, salt, and vanilla and continue to mix until well combined and smooth.
- Grate the carrots and add to the mixture. Then add the nuts and mix again.
- Divide evenly between cupcake cases (I ended up with 18!) and put in the oven for about 25 minutes.
- While you wait for them to bake/cool, mix the icing sugar, butter and cream cheese together until smooth and slightly stiff. Fill into icing bag and ice the cakes once they are cool.
- Add glitter and any other decoration you may like and....
Voila:
All done! Lets hope they are as delicious as they look and the batter tasted (Licking the bowl is my favorite bit about baking!)
x