Carrot and Orange Cake

Here's a carrot cake recipe I stumbled upon ages ago. I'm not going to say it's 'the definitive' or 'the ultimate' carrot cake recipe, but it's darn tasty nonetheless. I think the orange works really well and I've done a glaze instead of the traditional cream cheese icing, so this one is dairy free!

Prep Time: 20 Mins

Baking Time: 60 Mins

250ml Sunflower Oil (Plus a little extra for greasing)

225g Light Muscovado Sugar

225g Self Raising Flour

3 Large Eggs

250g Carrots (Peeled and grated)

1 Whole Orange

100g Raisins (The bigger and plumper the better!)

100g Chopped Walnuts

1tsp Baking Powder

2tsp Mixed Spice

75g Icing Sugar (For the glaze)

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and grease/line a 23cm springform tin. Put the sugar in a large bowl, pour in the oil followed by the eggs and mix it all together. Add the zest from the orange (keeping the juice for later), then the mixed spice. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then mix it up until you get a smooth batter. Fold in the grated carrot, followed by the chopped walnuts and raisins. It's good at this stage to get your hooter in there and give it a sniff as it'll smell delicious already! Spoon the batter into the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about 60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. When you're happy it's done take it out the oven, leave for about 20 Minutes then remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the glaze sift the icing sugar into a bowl and squeeze in that juice from the orange you used earlier. Mix it together, ideally with one of those mini sauce whisk things, until smooth and glossy. You can brush it over the cool cake, drizzle it, or even just spoon it over if you want. The choice is yours!