Classic Carrot Cake Recipe

by Sonia on October 11, 2009 in Dessert & Sweets

The other day, I was chatting with my London based friend K, she asked me to post a recipe for Carrot Cake. She told me that she had tried and tasted in Starbucks Coffee shop and totally loved it. So, she asked for recipe if I have any. I promised her to get back with recipe. And I had started to search for Carrot cake recipe…but I found it in my home. where? In my gifted book only. :) Couple of months ago, my hubby dear bought me the ‘Baking Bible’ book, is nice one with glossy pages and very informative for a novice baker. I found this recipe in that book and I tried first recipe from it. We loved the taste of Carrot Cake and it was beyond our expectation! I would love to make it again. Hope my friend K would like it too.

I have made some changes as per our taste, you can see my notes below.

Classic Carrot Cake Recipe: My entry goes to Meeta’s Monthly Mingle : High Tea Treats hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen.

Classic Carrot Cake Recipe:

Source: Baking Bible

Ingredients:

Butter, for greasing
125 gm or 1 cup heaped, Self-raising flour
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
125 gm or 3/4 cup lightly packed Soft Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
100 ML or 1/2 cup, Sunflower Oil
125 gm Carrot, about 1 cup, peeled and finely grated
25 gm or 1/3 cup Desiccated Coconut
25 gm or 1/3 cup heaped, Walnuts, chopped
Walnuts pieces, to decorate
ICING:
50 gm or 2 tbsp Butter, softened
50 gm or 2 tbsp Soft Cheese ( I used 5 % fat Cream Cheese)
220 gm Caster Sugar
1 tsp Lemon Juice

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly grease a 20-cm/8 inch square cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, salt and ground cinnamon into a large bowl and stir in the brown sugar. Add the eggs and oil to the dry ingredients and mix well.

3. Stir in the grated carrot, desiccated coconut and chopped walnuts.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or until just firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin.

5. Meanwhile, make the icing. In a bowl, beat together the butter, soft cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice until the mixture is fluffy and creamy.

6. Turn the cake out of the tin and cut into 12 bars or slices. Spread with the icing and then decorate with walnut pieces.

Enjoy!

My Notes:

1. The original recipe had mentioned to use Sunflower oil. Since I didn’t have it but Vegetable oil. I had searched other recipes on internet, there are many recipes, used Vegetable oil instead. So, I did use Vegetable oil and didn’t go any wrong with the taste.

2. The recipe mentioned 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon but I did also add Ground Nutmeg for extra flavor. I added 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon + 1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg in my cake.

3. My cake mixture was little dry and thick, so I added 2-3 tbsp buttermilk.

4. For icing, I reduced the quantity of sugar by 1/2 cup and I knew that the sweetness was just right enough. If you like more sweeter taste go ahead with original recipe.

5. The Icing is optional. You can enjoy the cake as it is.