One of the weirdest cake recipes I have ever seen was in a collection called 100 Years of Australian Country Cooking (1988) that I picked up in a garage sale with the kind of recipes that raise your eyebrows but, nevertheless, I find fascinating for their novelty value. Tempting dishes like Surprise Parsnip Pie and Mock Wild Duck Casserole (that contains beef and lambs kidney, but no duck) One particular recipe that caught my eye was for a beetroot cake with peanut butter icing – this was before the days of beetroot being trendy in everything, and I thought it very odd indeed.
Well, when I recently saw this carrot cake recipe I was immediately reminded me of the beetroot/peanut butter thingummy – must be the carrot with peanut butter in the cake and spicy banana icing on top. But, do you know what – it works!
This is a very versatile recipe, that I have tweaked to my taste, that can either be made into an iced afternoon teacake or into a slice that is great for children’s lunch boxes. It’s a real hit with our growing brood of grandchildren – 7 and counting! (Leila, 10, said the icing tasted like banana milkshake!)
I’ll give you the two versions and see what you think?
Carrot and Sultana Cake with Spiced Banana Icing
150 g crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup of sunflower or other vegetable oil
250 g dark brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
350 g freshly grated carrot
275 g sultanas
150 g glace ginger (optional)
100 g plain wholemeal flour (you can substitute this with almond meal)
150 g wholemeal self-raising flour
(for gluten free you can substitute with a third each of buckwheat/brown rice flour and fine polenta)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
