I am not a great cake-eating person, although I do enjoy baking, but my favourite is carrot cake. I have had several disastrous attempts at cooking carrot cakes and all have been not only unsuccessful but actually inedible! All the recipes I have tried have oil instead of butter and the result has been a strange textured cake with an unpleasant taste.
My dear cousins have been down to stay and young Jonathon aged 12 is a keen baker so having made a successful sponge with him we set about making a carrot cake from a recipe we found in the Dairy Book of British Food… and it was a success! A great success! Not only was the cake delicious but the topping was delicious too. If I cook it again -or should I say when I cook it again, I will bake it for a little longer as it was a little soggy, only a little mind you. The recipe, which I believe dates from the eighteenth century describes it as ‘moist’ and moist it certainly is.
Carrot Cake
- 8oz butter
- 8oz soft brown sugar
- 4 eggs separated
- finely grated lemon rind
- 20tsp lemon juice (we used more)
- 6oz self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2oz ground almonds
- 5oz walnut pieces
- 12oz carrots, peeled and grated
- 8oz cream cheese
- 2tsp clear honey
A greased and lined 8inch round cake tin, oven set at 180° C, 350° F, gas mark 4
- cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add egg yolks, stir in orange rind, and 3tsp of the lemon juice
- sift in flour and baking powder, stir in ground almonds and 4oz walnuts
- whisk egg whites until stiff and fold in with the carrots. pour into baking tin
- cook for 1½hours (we needed to cook ours for a little longer)
- leave to cool then turn out onto rack and remove lining paper and leave to cool
- to make the delicious topping, beat together the cream cheese, honey and remaining lemon juice, spread over cake and sprinkle with the rest of the walnuts
… and then…
…enjoy!!!
