Donna Hay carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Hip hip hooray! It was recently the Hungry Mum’s mum’s birthday (or, the Hungry Nonna as she likes to be known. FYI she’s not Italian, just an Italian nonna wannabe!)

The extended Hungry family gathered for breakfast recently at a cafe near the Hungry Nonna’s home, and after eggs and toast and coffee and pancakes were consumed it was cake time!

Carrot cake has long been one of mum’s favourite cakes and everyone loves cream cheese frosting so this was the birthday cake.

I also made a chocolate marsala cake as it is a family favourite so there was cake aplenty #HappyDays

This is Donna Hay carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is recipe from ages ago and it works every time. If you have a food processor I suggest grating the carrots that way as it will be much quicker than doing it by hand on a box grater.

I removed the sultanas from Donna’s original recipe as I am not a fan of sultanas in cakes – except for pound cakes and I reduced the amount of brown sugar in the cake and the icing sugar in the cream cheese frosting.

And the little carrots on top? They were real carrots, planted by seed by Miss7&9 and harvested by Miss9. They added such a cute touch, and mum loved them.

GATHER:

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1½ cups plain flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

2½ cups grated carrot (about five carrots)

½ cup chopped pecan

cream cheese frosting:

250g cream cheese, softened

90g icing sugar, sifted

1½ tablespoons lemon juice

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line two, 20cm round cake tins with non-stick baking paper and set aside.

Place flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger in a medium size bowl and use a fork to combine and aerate the ingredients.

In bowl of electric mixer with the beater attachment mix together sugar and oil until combined.

Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well.

Scrape down sides of bowl with a spatula then fold in the flour mixture.

Using a spoon stir in carrots and pecans until just combined – don’t over-mix.

Scrape into the two tins then bake for 21-ish minutes – you may have to cook for a bt longer but test with a skewer first.

Leave in tins for ten minutes then remove from tins and cool on wire racks.

Meanwhile make the cream cheese icing: in bowl of food processor blitz icing sugar to remove any lumps then add diced cream cheese and lemon juice. Process until smooth – about 1 minute.

When cakes are totally cold place one cake on serving platter then top with some of the icing and place second cake on top, then use spatula to cover top. We left our sides naked as I love that look but you can cover yours with frosting if you wish.

Tags: bake, baking, birthday cake, brown sugar, cake, carrot, carrot cake, cream cheese, Donna Hay, recipe