Carrot loaf cake with orange cream cheese/ cottage icing
Carrot loaf cake topped with orange cream
Ingredients:
For the carrot cake
- 140ml , vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
- 2 free-range eggs
- 200g light brown sugar
- 300g grated carrot (grated weight)
- 100g raisins
- 75g pecans or walnuts chopped
- 180g self raising flour
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ tsp mixed spices
For the orange cream cheese icing
- 150g cream cheese chilled (see recipe tips)
- 150 cottage cheese (or 50 gram butter)
- 1 tsp vanille extract
- 50g icing sugar sifted
- 1 orange, zest only
Method
- Preheat the oven to 150C. Oil and line a 900g loaf tin (approximately 13x23cm) with baking paper.
- For the carrot cake, beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped nuts.
- Sift in the remaining cake ingredients and mix using a wooden or large metal spoon until well combined.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, smooth the surface and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
- For the icing, beat the cream cheese and cottage cheese together in a bowl until well combined (take care not to overbeat, stop as soon as the ingredients are combined). Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and orange zest and mix until the icing is smooth.
- Using a palette knife, spread the icing evenly over the cooled cake, dipping the knife into a bowl of hot water if the icing is hard to spread out. Cut into slices to serve.
