perfect carrot cake

this carrot cake is the brain child of by my genius sister. I have been making this zucchini cake for a while now and love it so much because of it's amazing texture, taste and keeping qualities (seriously, it lasts so well!)
I was all keen and ready to make it the other day but alas! we had no zucchinis. anywhere. at all. zero.

but luckily my sister is a junior-einstein and suggested swapping carrots for the zucchinis and I made and it was p.e.r.f.e.c.t! some carrot cake recipes recommend using coarsely grated carrot to stop the cake getting too wet but finely grated works so well in this cake and I was able to reduce the oil content a little so two slices with a cup of tea is completely fine for sure!



perfect carrot cake

1 cup (about 150g) lightly toasted nuts (I used a combination of pecans and a few stray pretty pistachios), roughly chopped
1 cup (150g) flour
1 cup (150g) self raising flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 free range eggs
1 1/2 (330g) cups brown sugar
3/4 cup (185ml) vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 heaping cups (350g) finely grated carrots

Preheat your oven to 160ºC fan forced. Prepare a large bundt tin (or any other cake tin you like but baking times will vary)

In a medium bowl sift together the dry ingredients

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar and vegetable oil until thick and the sugar starts to dissolve. Add vanilla

Stir through the dry ingredients and ensure it is all mixed well then add the chopped nuts and carrot.

Pop the batter into the bundt tin and bake for 50 minutes or when a skewer put in the centre comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the edge of the tin.

Allow to cool in the tin for a while then turn out and enjoy! I loved it just plain or with a shower of icing sugar but you could definitely ice it with a classic cream cheese icing too!