Ultimate Carrot Cake

Hey there. Ultimate Carrot Cake. I've called it "Ultimate" as it's not shy of flavours! And today, I wanted one that I could taste the carrot and orange without it being too over-powering. I loved every last bit of this carrot cake and you will too! My photos don't do it justice. Sad face for that  :-(   I took an extra day fussing over the pics and just decided to go with what I got, otherwise this post was just not going to get written!

Carrot cake is wonderfully moist, so keeps well. So you can... eat a little, save some. Eat some more, save a bit. Eat the piece that's just fallen off onto the table, save the rest. Eat a tiny bit more, save the last bit... there's no point leaving a small bit, so just eat the lot!
I'm sure you get the picture  :-)

Carrot Cake

175ml/ 6 fl oz Vegetable oil

185g/ 6½ oz soft dark brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
185g/ 6½ oz grated carrot
30g/ 1 oz walnuts, chopped
grated rind of 1 orange
175g/ 6 oz self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
orange zest to decorate

Frosting
200g/ 7 oz Philadelphia soft cheese
100g/ 3½ oz icing sugar
1 tsp orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºf. Grease and line a 23-cm/9-inch square cake tin with grease-proof paper. (Use a little bit of oil on the backs of the paper to affix to tin)

In a large bowl, beat together the oil, sugar and eggs. Stir in the grated carrots, walnut pieces and orange rind.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg together into the bowl, then mix evenly into the carrot mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until firm to the touch and an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, combine the Philadelphia, icing sugar and orange juice in a bowl and beat until smooth. Spread over the top of the cake with a palette knife.

Decorate with strips of orange zest and serve.