The Can’t Go Wrong Christmassy Carrot Cake

Thank you Lakshmi!! After a very long time I got into a baking mood and decided to make my favourite Can’t Go Wrong Carrot Cake today.   It’s always my first choice for dessert and with a cream cheese topping, its divine. The carrot cakes at the patisseries and bakeries are usually nicely spiced and a tad heavy for me if you know what I mean. I am not a big fan of the spice standing out in a cake or desert and therefore you will see most of the desserts that I make usually have very little of those and therefore understated.

Driving to town this morning, it was very nice to see folks donning bright red Santa hats perhaps headed for  a Xmas party, may be at school or office.  Amazing how this festival has assumed so much of prominence  here .  If I recall right, some of the shops sported Xmas decoration during the Eid Break way back in Oct!!! I don’t know if Europe sees this kind of celebrations!  Anyways, I figured since the Liver roast has been done as a starter why not think of a Xmassy cake without the  rum and raisin for dessert! So here goes everyone…

The Can’t Go Wrong  Christmassy Carrot Cake 

You will need the following …All good things come in twos hey…

• 2 cups (about 180 gm I think )of Cake flour ,All purpose  is fine
• 2 cups of brown sugar
• 2 cups of grated carrot
• 2 cups of Oil  OR  1/2 cup of oil and I cup of apple puree ( I have never tried it with apple puree but surely the healthier choice. I have made this once with 1 ½ cup of oil and it turned out ok) 
• 2  teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 2 teaspoon of ground spices (1 tsp cinnamon ,1/2 tsp All spice and ½ tsp nutmeg
• 4 eggs
• Broken Nuts (Pecan ,Almond , Walnut, Hazel nut..whatever you have, can throw in some raisins as well and crystalised ginger which bring a really nice twist to the cake)

Preheat the oven to a nice 170 degree..

Beat the eggs and sugar until light brown and frothy and you can see little bubbles appearing.

Add the Oil , beating all the time.  Once thoroughly mixed, add the flour . I usually mix the ground spice , the baking powder and soda with the flour. The flour is added gradually either on  low speed  if using  an electric mixer or manually folded in.The flour now will be rather thick ..not too worry . Once nicely mixed , add the grated carrot and the nuts and once again just fold or mix on very low speed cos you don’t want to crush the nuts too much.Pour the thickish, sticky batter into a cake tin and bake for about 45 mins to an hour..Keep checking as ovens vary. Be careful that you don’t leave it in the oven for too long lest the cake dries up.

The Cream cheese Icing 

Mix 250 g  of cream cheese , ½ cup of icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice.

In our house the icing is never made as the cake is always devoured before the topping is even made. (The devourer is usually me) This time  there was a bit of left over icing sugar , so decided to make do with a wee bit of icing..But try it , the lemony sweetness really contrasts with the spicy carroty flavor  and a perfect dessert to finish off Xmas lunch or dinner… And very easy too!      Apologies that the photographs aren’t great.