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Janet’s Perfect Carrot Cake

Feb 9, 2012 by     2 Comments    Posted under: A to Z of recipes, Desserts

Carrot cake

This is a wonderfully moist, but not too heavy carrot cake – another recipe from my good friend Janet.

Serves 12

Preparation time 25 mins

Cooking time 1 hour

Cost per portion £0.33

Method
1. Pre heat the oven to 180C.
2. Lightly grease a 20cm round cake tin with some butter.
3. Grate the carrots and keep them aside.
4. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until thick, pale and creamy – this takes about 2 minutes with an electric whisk.
5. Add the oil to the eggs and sugar and whisk it in for about 1 minute.
6. Gently fold the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into the egg mixture with a large metal spoon – don’t over mix otherwise the batter will lose the air that was whisked in with the eggs and sugar. (If adding coffee or orange zest, add them at this stage).
7. Add the grated carrots and chopped walnuts and continue folding them in gently.
8. Pour it all into the greased baking tin and bake for 60 minutes. (Insert a knife into the well-risen and firm cake and it should come out clean and dry when the cake is ready).
9. Let the cake cool down before topping it with cream cheese icing.

Ingredients
250g (3 medium sized) carrots – grated
280g caster sugar
200mls sunflower oil
3 eggs
200g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon powder
120g chopped walnuts
Zest of 2 oranges (optional)
3 teaspoons instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water (optional)

Additional Information

Janet gave me this recipe about 20 years ago – I still have it written down in her writing on a piece of “La Mama” headed paper (a shop in Cambridge in which she was doing a summer job). The recipe sat in my recipe folder all these years until last week when I decided to try it out; it turned out to be a very easy recipe – I can see myself making it again and again.

If you don’t like the idea of pieces of walnut in the cake, you could substitute ground almonds instead; or add a bit of extra flour if you want to skip the nuts completely.

The carrots add an air of wholesomeness and make one feel a little less guilty about eating cake!

Here’s a link to the cream cheese icing recipe in case you want to top the cake with it.

Nutrition Information

Nutrition per 100g per portion RDA women RDA men RDA child
Energy 385 kcal 400 kcal 20% 16% 22%
Protein* 5.0 g 5.2 g 11% 9% 21%
Total Fat 25 g 25 g 36% 27% 36%
Polyunsaturates* 15 g 16 g
Mono Unsaturates* 5.2 g 5.3 g
Saturated Fat 3.0 g 3.1 g 15% 10% 15%
Total Sugars* 26 g 26 g 29% 22% 31%
Carbohydrate* 38 g 39 g 17% 13% 18%
Fibre NSP* 0.9 g 0.9 g 5% 5% 6%

* Percentage Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet for an average adult.
Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Allergens: Egg, Wheat, Nuts, Gluten

Cost per recipe:£3.98
Cost per portion:£0.33

2 Comments + Add Comment

  • Love your website with all the explanations. I think it’s well layout and love the nutrition information. I also quite like the fact that you tell us what it would cost on average as we sometimes might be put off by expensive ingredients but when you add it all up it doesn’t always cots that much.
    Well done! It will be a great place for ideas too.
    I love carrot cake so will definitely give it a go but what misses here is the icing or not? If you would have a good recipe for icing I would love to have it
    Many thanks

    • Lou – thanks for your comments – I’ve added the ‘cream cheese icing’ link to the recipe.

We would love to hear from you about this recipe!