An Easy Peasy Carrot Cake Recipe...

...because I heard it's the Easter Bunny's favourite. 

Happy Easter! I love love LOVE this weekend, normally because we're either on our way to Cornwall (or on our way back, not so good) but also because it really feels like the worlds waking up. I'm not a religious person but I definitely like to enjoy a weekend which is all about celebrating all things new... and chocolate eggs, can't forget the chocolate eggs. 

* Oh, also I'm aware this blog has been "all about the bake(ing)" recently, not sure why, I've just been enjoy cake, and why not?! I'm sure they'll be more variety soon. * 

On with the cake...

I am going to give you a step by step guide this time, as I've put a few recipes together so you don't need to go anywhere else...

Ingredients

For the cake...

175g unsalted butter

175g soft light brown sugar

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 medium eggs (beaten)

100g chopped walnuts

350g peeled and grated carrots

26 x 16cm tray-bake tin lined with greaseproof paper

For the topping...

300g cream cheese

2tbsp icing sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1 packet of orange ready to roll icing

1 packet of green ready to roll icing 

(you could make your own icing but this stuff is cheap and easy)

What to do

1. Cream the butter and the sugar together until smooth and slowly add the 3 beaten eggs to the mixture. 

2. Next, fold in the flour until well combined and then add the cinnamon, walnuts and carrots. Before you add the carrots, your mixture may seem a little drier then normal cake mix but the carrots add a lot of moisture so don't worry about that. 

3. Once everything has been mixed together and the walnuts and carrots have been evenly distributed, pour your mix into your tray. 

N.B I have no idea why I didn't cut the paper out and line the tray (greasing the sides) but you should. 

4. Bake the carrot cake at 160 degrees c for around 45 mins - 1hr. Check your cake is ready by popping a knife or chopstick into the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean your cake is baked.

5. Allow you're cake to cool for 10 mins and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. This cake will be very crumbly so please do allow it to cool before you handle it too much.

6. Whilst the cake is cooling you can start to make the carrots. You could make your own fondant icing at this point but I cheated with this stuff...

... it was only £1.50 and just too easy to resist.

Start by rolling a small piece of the orange icing into a ball and then shape it into a cone. Score lines across the carrot with a knife or tooth pick. Next make a hole at the top of the carrot with a chopstick. 

7. Next you will use the green icing to make the leaves. You have to make a really small tear-drop shape. Pop the pointy bit into the hole you put at the top of the carrot and then make two snips, in the green icing, to form 3 leaves. 

      

   

8. Once you have prepared 15 mini fondant carrots, it's time to make the frosting. This part is really simple, you just need to put the cream cheese, lemon zest and icing sugar into a bowl and mix. 

9. When the cake is completely cool you can spread the cream cheese frosting all over the top of the cake. 

 

10. To finish, place your fondant carrots on top of the cake, imagining where the slices will be and then slice your cake into 15 pieces.

And you're done! 15 lovely little slices of Carrot Cake, perfect for an Easter treat. If there was a tradition of leaving something out for the Easter Bunny this is what I would leave him. 

I hope you all have a restful Easter weekend. Here's to Spring and here's to too many chocolate eggs!

Amy x