Mama's Carrot Cake

Tastes like my childhood.

When vegetables aren’t your friend, carrot cake is definitely the way to get those healthy nutrients inside your body! (well, kinda healthy). Super indulgent, creamy, tangy, soft, moist and bursting with flavour. This household staple recipe will make your mouth water and taste buds sing. I know it. 

Ingredients: 

For the cake:

• 200g orr 1 cup caster sugar 

• 100g or 1/2 cup brown sugar 

• 4 eggs 

• 150g or 3/4 cup canola oil 

• 170g melted butter

• 360g or 3 carrots (3 cups, shredded) 

• 315g or 21/2 cups all purpose flour

• 3g or 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder 

• 2g or 1/2 tsp nutmeg 

• 5g or 1 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 5g or 1 tsp baking soda 

• 3g or 1/2 tsp salt 

• 150g or 1 cup raisins (optional)

• 120g or 1 cup walnuts (optional)

• 1 tsp cardamom powder (optional)

For the frosting: 

• 200g Soft Cream Cheese (preferably Philadelphia full fat, but any other soft cheese will do) 

• 50g Unsalted butter 

• 100 g Icing Sugar 

• 1 pinch of cinnamon (as desired) 

Method: 

• Add both sugars and room temperature eggs in a bowl and beat until white, fluffy and creamed. Eggs should have become pale and doubled in volume. Then, slowly stream in your oil to the mixture beating constantly with an electric beater until emulsified. 

• To your butter and oil mixture, add your carrots and fold in.
  pro tip: dry out all of your carrots on a paper towel/newspaper an hour before you start baking to get all excess moisture out. This will result in a lighter, less dense cake.

• Now sift in your flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom powder baking powder, baking soda and salt and gently fold in with a spatula until just combined and no large flour pockets are visible. 

• Finally, add in any other mix-ins like nuts or raisins. 

• Line a parchment paper to a 9 x 16 pan and add in your batter. Bake until sides are golden and centre is set. You can test the cake by poking the centre, if it bounces back slightly its ready 

• For the frosting, mix all of your ingredients in a bowl. If frosting is too thick, you can thin out with a tsp of milk until desired consistency. 

• Top the cooled cake with frosting and serve!