Easter Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

225g butter, softened
25g light muscovado sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
225g wholemeal self-raising flour
1 tbsp mixed spice (pumpkin pie spice)
350g carrots, peeled and grated
100g pecan nuts, chopped
finely-grated zest of 1 orange

For the Topping:
200g cream cheese (or you can use my home-made cream cheese recipe to prepare your own)
50g icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp orange juice
mixed spice, for dusting
strips of orange zest, blanched, to decorate

Method:

Beat together the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly to combine after each addition.

Sift over the flour and mixed spice and fold in with a large metal spatula until just combined. Now stir in the carrots, pecan nuts and grated orange zest. Spoon the resultant mixture into a greased 20cm diameter cake tin, the base of which has been lined with baking parchment. Level the surface then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C (Gas Mark 4) and bake for 90 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake emerges cleanly.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat together the cream cheese and icing sugar with enough of the orange juice to make a smooth icing that's just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Spread this over the top and sides of the cake and scatter over the strips of orange zest.

Dust with a little mixed spice then transfer to the refrigerator to chill until ready to serve. If kept in the refrigerator it will keep for up to 10 days. This cake also freezes well.

Find more Easter Recipes Here.