Mrs Flams Carrot Cake

My brother-in-law Alan, has a food blog and has inspired me to write down my own recipes.  Rather than create a new blog, I'm just using this one.

Mrs Flams Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• 300g of plain flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate soda
• 2 tsp of cinnamon
• 200g of soft brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250ml of Vegetable Oil
• 1 orange zested
• 1 lemon zested
• 150g of walnuts (omit the walnuts if you are making the cake for someone with a nut allergy)
  
• 250g of finely grated carrot
• 1 large apple peeled, cored and finely grated (optional)

for the cream cheese frosting

• 125g unsalted soft butter
• 70g icing sugar
• 250g of cream cheese
• a splash of vanilla extract
  

you will also need a 10cm deep cake tin.

And this is how you make it.

Seive your flour into a large bowl and add the sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and cinnamon.  With a wooden spoon (or your hands if you are feeling messy) mix the dry ingredients well.

In a seperate bowl, beat your 4 eggs until smooth.

Add your eggs and oil to the dry mixture and mix until there are no lumps.  (if the mixture is too wet, add some flour)  At this point I'd recommend using the wooden spoon.

Add the zest of the orange and lemon, as well as your carrots, apple and walnuts, and ensure that you mix thoroughly.

Lightly grease the cake tin, and pour your mixture into the tin.

Bake in an oven on gas mark 3 for approximately one and a half hours. (make sure you have preheated your oven)

If you find the your cake isn't quite ready, leave it in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

For the cream cheese frosting (yumyum)

Cream the butter in a bowl, and then add the icing sugar and vanilla extract.  Stir the sugar and vanilla extract into the butter and then fold in your cream cheese, and mix well until the icing is smooth and creamy.

Once your cake has cooled, you can then put your frosting on.

It should look something like this

Serve with hot coffee and sit back and enjoy.