WE HAVE JUST BEEN THROWN INTO A SECOND WEEK OF LOCKDOWN and many of you will be looking for a simple and delicious cake to bake – look no further! I have made this carrot cake a few times now and it’s one of those that everyone seems to love – so let’s get baking. And here I have a bit of a confession to make – I’m not a big cake eater, but I simply love this carrot cake – see what you think?

RECIPE

• 125 g wholemeal self-raising flour (1 cup)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup light olive oil
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups finely grated carrot
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
• 1/2 tsp finely grated nutmeg

For the icing:

• 125 cream cheese
• 250 g pure icing sugar
• 60 g softened butter
• 1 desert spoon lemon juice

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180oC
• Grease and line a 20cm springform pan or oblong loaf tin
• Mix oil, eggs and sugar in food processor and beat for 1 minute.
• Add flour and nutmeg and mix quickly until combined.
• Add carrots and walnuts and pulse until combined.
• Pour into pan and bake for about 1 hour.
• Cool in tin before turning out.
• Spread over icing when cold.

MY TWO TOP TIPS

1. Pop the walnuts on a tray in the oven while it is preheating – just for about three minutes. Let them cool before adding them to the cake mixture. This improves texture and flavour.

2. Make the icing in the food processor before you use it to make the cake. If you give it a good scrape out with a spatula you won’t have to wash it up between steps.

As my good friend says – there’s no point in getting older unless you get smarter?