Carrot Cake

This is our favourite carrot cake recipe. It’s soft and moist, with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg adding a beautiful flavour and fragrance—your kitchen will smell divine! We use walnuts for the crunch, and the pineapple takes the cake to the next level.

Our carrot cake is topped with cream cheese frosting, and for the wow effect, decorated with chopped pistachios. Absolutely lovely any time of the year, but especially around the festive season!

Ingredients

MAKES ONE 23x13cm LOAF

Cake

• 2 large eggs, room temperature 

• 150g light brown soft sugar

• 150ml vegetable oil (we’ve used grape seed oil)

• 230g plain flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder 

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

• Pinch of salt 

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

• 160g carrot, finely grated 

• 120g pineapple, fresh or from a can, cut in small chunks

• 50g walnuts

Frosting

• 200g cream cheese

• 75g icing sugar

• A handful of nuts (e.g. pistachios) to decorate the top

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.

2. Lightly coat the loaf pan with butter or nonstick spray and line with parchment paper, leaving some overhang on each side.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until they about double in size. Add sugar and whisk until light and creamy.

4. While whisking, pour in the oil and mix until incorporated.

5. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Mix well until fully combined.

6. Then add the grated carrot, pineapple and vanilla extract, and finally fold in the chopped walnuts.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

8. Bake for about 60-70min, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.

9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

10. For the frosting, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add icing sugar (the mixture will be quite slack at first) and beat until smooth and the frosting has thickened.

11. Spread the frosting on top of the cooled carrot cake, and decorate with chopped pistachios.

Tips

• The pineapple can be fresh or from a can, we used the latter.

• You can make this carrot cake with or without the frosting, it tastes delicious both ways.

• This is one of those cakes that will stay fresh for longer, so it can be prepared a day in advance.

• You can use other nuts, such as pecans, instead of the walnuts—and add raisins or grated apple in place of the pineapple.