I hadn’t made carrot cake in years and then, one day when I had very little margarine or butter in the fridge, I decided to revisit this classic. I started out using a recipe from an Avoca recipe book but, as with most of my recipes, I made a few adjustments along the way to suit the ingredients I had in my press. Hence, the reason why this cake doesn’t have a traditional cream cheese topping.

If you’re feeling adventurous in the kitchen you could try replacing half of the carrots with grated apple or grated courgette. A combination of grated carrot and courgette would be ideal colours for St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th. A handful of chopped walnuts and some sultanas are nice in a carrot cake too.

Hope you enjoy!

Amy x

Ingredients
200ml sunflower oil
200g caster sugar
1/2 tsp lemon essence
2 egg
200g self-raising flour
4 small carrots, grated
Zest of a large orange
1 tsp mixed spice

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Beat together the sunflower oil, sugar, eggs and lemon essence until thick and creamy.

Fold in the flour, followed by the carrot, orange zest and mixed spice.

Transfer to the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

Optional: Allow to cool in the tin before drizzling with an icing sugar glaze made with icing sugar and orange juice (a lighter option to cream cheese frosting).