Carrot Cake

This carrot cake has become a bit of a birthday tradition for Mr VST and his older brother too. It's so easy to make and really light and sweet with the cream cheese icing.

Ingredients:
Cake itself:
450g golden caster sugar
125ml/4 fl oz vegetable oil
125ml/4fl oz orange juice
225g carrots, peeled and grated
225g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Icing:
225g icing sugar
225g full fat cream cheese
55g butter
1tsp vanilla essence
175g chopped walnuts or pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C/Gas 5. Line with greaseproof paper either one roasting tin like I did or two 2 x 9 inch round cake tins.

2. Mix the caster sugar, vegetable oil, orange juice, eggs and carrots together and whisk for 2 minutes.

3. Sift dry ingredients together and then add a quarter at a time to the carrot mixture. 

4. Divide the mixture into tins and bake for 35-45 mins.

5. For the icing cream the butter, then mix with the cream cheese. Add the vanilla essence and mix in well before sifting the icing sugar into the mixture slowly.

6. When the cake has cooled spread the icing all over the top and sides (and middle if you are making a 2 layer cake) and then sprinkle the nuts on top to decorate

I will post a photo of the finished product when I can get hold of one!