Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

• 2 free-range or organic eggs
• 200g of fine sugar
• 150ml of canola or vegetable oil
• 200g of finely grated carrots
• 50g of chopped walnuts
• 75g of canned pineapple slices, chopped
• 50g of unsweetened coconut flakes
• 200g of plain, all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Icing

• 125g of cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)
• 50g of soft butter
• 100g of confectioners’ sugar

Garnish

• crushed walnuts or pistachios, to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F.

2. Sift flour into a medium-size bowl, add baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir to combine all dry ingredients.

3. In a large mixing bowl whip the eggs until fluffy and doubled in volume. Add sugar and continue to whisk at high speed while continuously adding a thin stream of oil. The cake mixture should be smooth and fluffy.

4. Gently fold in walnuts, coconut flakes, pineapple, and grated carrots.

5. Gradually, spoon by spoon, fold in the flour mixture. 

6. Pour the cake mixture into a 22.3cm / 9in spring cake pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 1 – 1 1/4 hours, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
7. If the top of the cake starts getting too dark, cover it with a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil.
8. Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
9. While the cake is cooling prepare the icing: whisk butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Stir in confectioners’ sugar.
10. Remove cake from pan and slice horizontally into two halves. Spread 1/3 of the icing on the bottom half of the cake, cover with the other half and spread the rest of the icing all over the cake.
11. Decorate the cake with crushed walnuts or pistachios and serve in generous slices.