Too Easy Carrot Cake by Mandy Wrangles

Baking with Mandy Wrangles

Too Easy Carrot Cake

This is a really simple recipe (it’s never failed me yet) but there are a number of ingredients. I find the best way to make sure I don’t forget something is to have all my ingredients organised, measured and on the bench waiting to be thrown into the mixture.

What you’ll need:

1 cup of brown sugar tightly packed

1 cup of vegetable oil

3 large eggs

A pinch of salt

Half a teaspoon of Bicarb Soda

2 cups of self-raising flour

2 cups of finely grated carrot – about 4 big carrots

Half a cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of nutmeg

How it’s done:

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line two loaf tins with baking paper. Preferably use an electric beater to beat the sugar and oil together until they’re thick. Of course you can use an old-fashioned hand beater, but you might end up with a dead-arm afterwards.

Once the sugar and oil are combined and thick, add the eggs one at a time. Keep beating. Then, add the salt, bicarb, carrots, flour, walnuts and spices and mix together by hand with a wooden spoon – otherwise the carrot and walnuts get all tangled in the beaters.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two loaf tins and bake for about 35 or 40 minutes. The cakes should be a light golden brown colour, and spring back when you touch them in the middle.

Icing:

Okay, I have to admit, this Carrot Cake rarely makes it to the icing stage at my place because it gets devoured warm. But, if you can resist temptation, here’s the recipe I use:

 1 cup of icing sugar

100 grams of softened cream cheese

45 grams of softened unsalted butter

1tsp of lemon juice

Finely grated rind of 1 lemon

Again, I use an electric beater to combine, but you could use a wooden spoon to mix this. Just make sure the cream cheese and butter are at room temperature before you start.