CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING

In my early twenties when I worked in a bank, one of the girls in the office decided to start a ‘recipe tree’, where we each chose 5 friends to send one of our own recipes to, and those 5 friends would send one back, so we each ended up with 5 new recipes to try.

This carrot cake recipe that a friend sent me ended up becoming one of those ‘no fail’ recipes that I have made many times over the years…

·      1 cup wholemeal four

·      1 cup plain white flour

·      2 tspns baking soda

·      2 cups raw sugar

·      ¼ tsp salt

·      2 tspns cinnamon

·      1 cup salad oil

·      4 beaten eggs

·      3 cups grated carrot

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add oil and beaten eggs, stir then add grated carrot and mix thoroughly.

Lightly grease and flour a 22cm ring tin and pour in the mixture.

Bake 180oC for 50 – 60 minutes until cooked through.

When cool, ice with cream cheese icing and decorate with grated lemon rind and walnuts. Mm mmm…

CREAM CHEESE ICING

·      100g cream cheese

·      2 tblspns softened butter

·      1 tspn lemon juice

·      1 – 1 ½ cups icing sugar

Mix cream cheese and butter until well combined, add lemon juice, sift in the icing sugar so there are no lumps and stir. Add a few drops of boiling water from the jug and more icing sugar if necessary until it reaches a nice smooth and thick consistency.