Saturday, August 01, 2009

S&SB : Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting


I haven't been participating in Sweet and Simple Bakes for a long time.. I am so sorry Rosie and Maria. I really felt bad for not able to join the past months... I missed so many great bakes. My bad! I got to know about this bake 3 days ago. Luckily, I have most of the ingredients except for the cream cheese.. that is easy to get.. So I quickly made it so that I can post on the required posting date. :)

Actually I never had carrot cake before... I just never like the idea of carrot and spices in my cake.. But after one bite of my own baked carrot cake, hmm... yummy!!! Even my hubby rated A+. hehe.. I was very pleased with the carrot cake but wasn't too pleased with my frosting.. This is my 2nd time!!! Its not in the right consistency. I am not sure what when wrong?? I used powdered sugar and all the ingredients required but still not right.. :( I will keep trying until its right! I didn't put the picture of the whole cake because I thought the presentation of the cake is not attractive enough so you'll see only parts of it.. hehe...



Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Serves 12
Ingredients
180g (6½ oz) self-raising (self-rising) flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp mixed spice (Pumpkin pie spice)
2 eggs
150 ml (5 fl oz) vegetable or sunflower oil
200g (7 oz) soft light or dark brown sugar
300g (11 oz) grated carrots
100g (4 oz) sultanas
75g (3 oz) walnuts, chopped (optional)
Cream Cheese Icing
75g (3 oz) cream cheese
75g (3 oz) softened butter
125g (4½ oz) icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
For Decoration
Sprinkles or walnut halves - optional

You will need a 13cm x 23cm (5 in x 9 in) loaf tin, oil and line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas mark 2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and leave aside. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, now add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, sultanas and chopped walnuts. Stir in all sifted dry ingredients and bring the mixture together with a wooden spoon. Turn into the prepared tin, smooth the top of the mixture and bake in the oven for 1 – 1¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make The Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and mix to combine. Using a palette knife, spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled cake. Add the sprinkles or walnut halves if desired. Served cut into slices.

Notes:
1. You can play around with the dried fruits and nuts and use, raisins in place of sultanas and pecans in place of walnuts for alternatives.
2. I would advise you to store this cake in a cool place due to the cream cheese icing.
3. If using plain (all-purpose) flour - The rule of thumb is that for every 100g (4oz) of flour you will need to add 1 teaspoon of baking powder.


I just thought of taking the picture below because it was my first time using the Foodbuzz s apron. You see, Foodbuzz sent me this apron late last year but I didn't get a chance to use it.. Not only that, I get my namecards too. hehe.. cool ah! Well today's blog is all about my first time.. heheh.. well.. there's always first time for everything, right... And thank you Foodbuzz for the lovely apron and the namecards. :)



Dun forget to check out Sweet and Simple Bakes for the bakes from SS members. Thanks Rosie and Maria for this wonderful bake. xoxo
Have a great weekends everyone! :)

14 comments:

♥Rosie♥ said...

Hi lilmizlynn, welcome back to S&SB and it's really lovely to have you bake with us again :0)

Sorry to hear that your frosting didn't turn out as well as you'd like. Reading on my travels of other S&SB bakers the heat and humidity seems to be a factor of it not turning out right. However, your carrot cake looks absolutely delicious!!

Thank you for taking part in this month’s Sweet & Simple Bakes event! I do hope you will join us once again in our monthly baking :0)

Best wishes Rosie x

Snooky doodle said...

I liked this cake alot. Pity the frosting didn t turn out as you desired but its the taste that counts :)

Maria♥ said...

Hi lilmizlynn,

Welcome back and lovely to have you back with us!

This is my favourite carrot cake recipe and I am so glad you decided to give it a go. Your cake turned out beautiful and don't worry about the cream cheese, mine didn't turn out as great as other times due to the humid hot weather!

Thanks for taking part and hope you will join us again.

Maria
x

Joanne said...

Great job. I just love carrot cake. It's too good not to bake when someone hosts a recipe.
You look cute in your new apron.

lilmizlynn said...

Thanks everyone for your great comments. I'm glad that i decided to bake this wonderful carrot cake. simply delicious! :)

Shri said...

Your cake looks absolutely delicious.My frosting was kind of getting to a loose consistency which is when I refrigerated it for a while and it turned out well.

Lucie said...

This looks fab - so nice to get ideas from others. I also think yout beef with looks delicious!! best wishes. Lucie :)

Unknown said...

Thanks for dropping by my blog. Your cake looks soft and delicious too!

Sugar said...

your cake looks so nice with the sprinkles deco...the color really attractive...

Anonymous said...

Hi babe...
Wow! Ur cake looks really yummy!! U should be my neighbour!!! hahaha!!!! Well done lynn..!!!!!!! ;)

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks mighty fine to me! I just love how you've decorated the corner like that with sprinkles.

I hear you with the frosting though, I had some problems with the consistency myself which upon further research I found was down to the temperature (I made on a warm day). The chief culprit allegedly being the butter which is supposed to be soft but still chilled and firm-ish to the touch or it gets moody when it meets up with the cream cheese.

Neat apron by the way :)

Kelly-Jane said...

Lovely cake, and lovely picture of you in your new apron too :)

Helen said...

Your cake looks lovely : )

The Girl said...

Hi there. Cake looks lovely to me - don't worry about the icing!!

Someone I work with had never had carrot cake either, she said that it just sounded weird - carrot in a cake?! - but I think I converted her!

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