Ultimate Carrot Cake

Soft and springy, deliciously spiced but not too sweet

My Favourite Cake...

A lovely, squidgy spiced cake full of sultanas and plump walnuts. Topped usually with a cream cheese buttercream. Is there anything nicer?

Perfect for rainy autumn days and summer garden parties alike, the carrot cake was supposedly born in the middle ages when sugar was a rare luxury indeed. The idea was the carrot would break down during cooking naturally sweetening the dish. It fell out of favour in the UK once sugar became more readily available and cheaper.

However, during the food shortages and rationing in the second world war, sugar came at a premium once again and people were encouraged to grow their own vegetables to reduce demand. A product of this was a boom in ingenuity, resourcefulness and a good rummage around some old recipes. It led to a massive resurgence in popularity for this delicious treat and it has become one of the most popular cakes in Britain and internationally to this day.

I want to share my own recipe that I have spent a lot of (delicious) trial and error to perfect. I swapped out butter for cream in the topping to make it lighter so that it matches the sponge. Normal cream cheese topping just felt too heavy and sticky for this cake with this recipe.

It's a lot more luxurious than the carrot cakes of old but you will be hard pushed to find a tastier, more scrumptious version out there.

• Makes 1 12-inch cake or 20 cupcakes

• Prep - 45 mins

• Cooking - 45 mins

Let's Get The Ingredients...

For the Cake:

• 250g Plain White Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
• 4 Large Eggs
• 2-3 Tablespoons Cinnamon
• 2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
• 375ml Sunflower Oil
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 200g Soft Light Brown Sugar (can be swapped for an extra 200g of caster instead)
• 125g Chopped Walnuts
• 75g Sultanas
• 300g Grated Carrots (Washed but not peeled)
• Juice of 1 Orange (Make sure you zest it first!)

For the Topping:

• 200g Cream Cheese (let this warm to room temp)
• 150g Icing Sugar
• 100ml Double Cream
• Zest of 1 Orange (from the same orange you juiced)
• 50g Chopped Walnuts

Now to cook...

Start by mixing the flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger and baking soda together in a bowl so it makes a nice uniform coloured powder.

In a mixer start beating together the oil, sugar and vanilla - it won't make a nice fluffy texture that normal creaming makes with solid fats but it should start to look pale and a definitely fluffier than before. Start adding the eggs, one at a time, waiting for the previous egg to be combined before adding the next. It should start to look a lot fluffier now and, once it won't get any lighter, stop the mixer.

Now add about 1/3 of the dry mixture you made in the first step to the egg, sugar and oil mix and stir in gently with a spoon or spatula (or use the mixer on the lowest setting) until combined and repeat this until the two mixes are completely combined.

We can finally fold in the walnuts, carrot and sultanas. Do this gently by hand using a spoon or spatula.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: One of my secrets to an incredibly soft and light carrot cake is to now leave the batter at room temp for 30 minutes... When you come back to it you will see the baking soda will have already started to make it rise in its batter stage

If you don't want to wait as above then you can skip straight to this part and it will still be delicious. Make sure your oven is preheated to 180°C (355°F) and line and grease a 12-inch tin, preferably a springform if you have one as this cake will be soft and delicate to once it is out the oven.

Pour the batter in the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for around 30-40 minutes (about 10-15 if you are doing cupcakes). To test it is ready, use a cocktail stick or skewer and push it through the middle of the cake to the bottom of the tin. If there is wet batter on it when you slide it back out, it needs longer.

Take the cake out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 mins before turning the cake out and then cooling on a rack until it is completely cooled.

Now for the topping, you want to take your room temperature cream cheese and put it back in your mixer with the beater attachment and start beating the cheese on its own on the slowest setting. this just breaks it up, makes any excess whey reconstitute into the cheese and adds a little air.

Now turn up the mixer speed and start adding the icing sugar in 4 stages. Once it's combined you can now add the double cream and put your mixer on high for a couple of minutes and you should have a lovely fluffy glossy frosting, not too dissimilar in appearance to a meringue.

Lavishly spread this on the top of the cake (really go wild, all that topping is yummy) don't get too fussy about smoothness and leave the sides of the cake alone. Sprinkle orange zest and chopped walnuts on top of the frosting. I even sprinkle some cinnamon on top!

Enjoy however you wish, although I recommend it with a cup of hot earl grey tea - Will last a week out of the fridge despite the cream and cheese due to the sugar however refrigerating it will not degrade the quality like it does with a sponge.