Country Carrot Cake

Who doesn’t want a recipe for perfectly moist carrot cake, topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting? This recipe from the beautiful new cookbook After Dinner Mints for Breakfast is a winner! Helen Burge and Kirsty Willows have undertaken an amazing initiative for charity creating this 200 page cookbook including 160 treasured recipes from friends and family (all recipe tested too!). 100% of proceeds will go to the Captain Courageous Foundation to raise money for a rare condition of Bone Marrow Failure Diseases.

You are hosting the school class
morning tea and really want to make
an impressive cake that not only looks
good but also tastes great. You start
flicking through all your cookbooks
and magazines and choose a fabulous looking
cake with fancy ingredients.
But it lets you down – it doesn’t
look at all like the photo in the
recipe. Well, then you must try
Country Carrot Cake. It has never
failed me, and it is so incredibly
simple to make you will have all
the mums asking for a copy of this
recipe before leaving your house. It
happened to me!
– Kirsty Willows

Ingredients

1 cup freshly grated carrot

200g crushed pineapple
(juice strained)

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

5 tbs olive oil

¼ cup walnuts, chopped

Cream Cheese Topping

3 tbs unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

250g cream cheese

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 lemon, juice and zest

Method

1. In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder,
baking soda, salt, cinnamon &=and sugar.

2. Add the eggs and olive oil and mix well with a
wooden spoon.

3. Stir in the grated carrot, crushed pineapple and
chopped walnuts.

4. Spoon into a greased and lined 11cm x 25cm
loaf tin.

5. Bake at 180°C for 35–40 minutes until cooked.

6. To make the topping, cream together butter,
3–6 tbs cream cheese and vanilla extract. Slowly
add in icing sugar and beat well with either a
wooden spoon or electric beater.

7. Add zest of 1 lemon and a little lemon juice for
a tangy flavour.

8. Spoon onto the cake and roughly smooth over
the top with a spatula.

Serving Suggestions

This recipe can also be made into cupcakes, which only
need baking for 12–15 minutes.
I like to make the cream cheese icing less sweet, so I
add 6 to 10 tbs of cream cheese and decorate the iced
cake with toasted coconut flakes.
My children love this carrot cake as cupcakes (without
the walnuts) in their lunchbox.

Buy the beautiful cookbook After Dinner Mints for Breakfast here!