This cake has been adopted by me since moving to Australia. I’ve never had a carrot cake made by a family member in the Caribbean, but I’ve added this cake to my baking repertoire.
I make it very simple, not too much decoration, because it’s all about the taste.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 2 cups self rising flour
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tsp all-spice powder
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger (finely grated)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup sour cream (or plain full fat plain yogurt)
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 3 Eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 3 peeled carrots – grated
- 1/2 cup milk
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 250 g cream cheese block
- Vanilla essence
- 1 1/2 Cup icing sugar
- 3 tbsp cream
Method
Sift all dry ingredients together in a bowl
Measure out all wet ingredients in a separate bowl (eggs, oil, carrots, sour cream, milk), whisk together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient and combine with a wooden spoon. Do not over mix your batter, once combined stop mixing. Your cake will be too tough if you over mix.
Pour your mixture into a greased cake tin. You can cut it length-wise through the middle to make it a layered cake; or leave it one layer and only frost the outside.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. This cake has to completely cool to frost.
The cream cheese frosting
Get your cream cheese soft, let it sit out on the counter for 20 minutes from the fridge. Combine all frosting ingredients together in a bowl with a mixer till well combined, smooth and creamy. If the mixture is too stiff add cream or milk, if it’s too runny add more icing sugar to thicken it. This has to have a spreadable consistency to dress the cake.
I made a layered cake. This cake had a layer of cream cheese frosting in the middle.
Spread your cream cheese frosting on the top and sides of your cooled cake. The process I used was to do a thin first layer (crumb coat) place that in the fridge for 15 minutes to set and do a second thicker coat to cover the entire cake in a white cream cheese frosting.
You can decorate your version with nuts and carrots if you want, or you can write a nice note on it for a friend in orange frosting. I made mine nut free to suit any nut allergies, and plain to save time.
We love the moist texture and the spiced flavor of this cake. Share with friends after dinner with a cuppa!
Bon Manger!
Grande Mangeur 