It is difficult to find a carrot cake that is perfectly made, because I find a lot of them are dry. I tried this recipe below and it worked out great, moist just the way it is meant to be. Sometimes a recipe works only once so I have tried it a few times and it comes out just as moist and delicious as the first time.
The trick to this carrot cake is that you MUST NOT forget to cover the cake with tin foil halfway through the cooking time. This is very important as this allows the cake to cook properly from inside out and the top will not harden or burn. I speak from experience as I forgot this process out once.
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE CAKE:
1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups (250g) firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups (720g) firmly packed, coarsely grated carrot (roughly 6 medium sized carrots)
1 cup (120g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 ½ cups (375g) self-raising flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons mixed spice
FOR THE LEMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
30g butter
80g cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
1 ½ cups (240g) icing sugar
METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to moderate (180°C). Grease a deep 23cm-round cake pan, line base with baking paper.
2. Beat oil, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with electric mixer until thick and creamy. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in carrot and nuts, then the sifted dry ingredients.
3. Pour mixture into prepared pan, bake in moderate oven for about 1 ¼ hours. Cover cake loosely with foil halfway through cooking.
4. Stand cake for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool.
5. To make the icing, beat the butter, cream cheese and rind in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in icing sugar.
6. Spread Lemon Cream Cheese frosting over cold cake.
