Baking A Moist Carrot Cake

I have been craving a deliciously moist carrot cake for over a week. Normally I would wait for such a craving to pass, but when this one didn't I decided that there was nothing else to do, but to bake it. I have been wanting to experiment with my proven recipe for a while and today was going to give me the opportunity to do so. It was everything I hoped for, satisfied my craving, and was such a hit with the family that I decided to blog the recipe for your benefit as well. Fortunately I had gotten into the habit of taking photos of everything I make or bake, making it easy to blog about those things that turn out too good not to share!

Add 2 cups (500 ml) cake flour, 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder and 1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking soda to a mixing bowl.

Add 2 teaspoons (10 ml) cinnamon powder, 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt and 1/2 teaspoon (2,5 ml) pimento to the bowl.

Add 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) brown sugar to the bowl. Mix all the dry  ingredients well.

Add 1/4 cup (60 ml) each sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to the bowl. This is my new addition to the existing recipe and you may leave it out, if it is not to your liking, but I found that it added lovely flavour to the cake and will bake it with these added in future.

You really want to use walnuts or pecan nuts in a carrot cake, but as I did not have either of these in the house, I settled for 1/2 cup (125 ml) cashews and ...

1/2 cup (125 ml) cashews. Chop the nuts roughly before adding it to the bowl.

Peel and grate two large carrots. Add these to the bowl.

Add a tin of crushed pineapples with its juice to the mixing bowl.

Break 4 eggs into the bowl.

Add 1 1/4 cup (185 ml) sunflower oil to the bowl.

Mix everything well.

Prepare a cake tin with non-stick spray. It is always better to bake a heavy cake in a tin that has a hole in the center as it can easily bake unevenly because of its weight, being cooked on the outside, while still raw in the center.

Pour the cake mix into the cake tin. I kept some of the cake mix aside for smaller cupcakes as a treat for the younger kids. Bake for about 45 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 °C.

In the meantime, you can prepare the frosting. Soften 50 g butter and add it to a mixing bowl, along with a container of plain smooth cottage cheese.

Add 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla essence to the bowl.

Add 2 cups (500 ml) icing sugar to the bowl. I strongly suggest you sift these to get rid of clumps in the sugar.

Mix everything together.

My cupcakes came out of the oven a good 15 minutes before the cake was done.

Finally the cake was also ready to come out. Let it sit in the tin for a few minutes to loosen from the sides.

Turn the cake out on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Decorate with icing. If you love the sweetness of icing, you may want to decorate the sides as well. This is personal choice.

Decorate as you please and enjoy. This cake is actually better the day after you've baked it as the spices will develop more fully when you let it sit for a while.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
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Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
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