Recipe: Nutty Carrot Cake

INGREDIENTS

For the Cake:
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup pecan nuts, toasted and chopped
• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 180 ml vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup plain yoghurt
• 3 tbsp. buttermilk

For the Frosting:
• 250 g cream cheese
• 50 g butter, softened
• 300 g icing sugar, sifted
• the zest of 1 lemon
• a squeeze of lemon juice
• extra toasted pecan nuts, to garnish

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Grease a 23cm cake tin and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl sieve together the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. In another bowl whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla – keep whisking until the mixture is creamy.
5. Stir through the yoghurt and buttermilk.
6. Using a wooden spoon, combine the flour with the egg and yoghurt mixture.
7. Finally fold in the chopped toasted pecan nuts, coconut and grated carrots.
8. Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes or until cooked through.
9. You can check if it’s cooked through by inserting a kebab skewer into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.

While the cake cools down combine all the ingredients for the zesty cream cheese frosting:

1. Combine the butter and cream cheese in a bowl and beat until smooth.
2. Add through the icing sugar, lemon zest and juice.
3. Mix until the icing is smooth and thick.
4. Once the cake has cooled down to room temperature, take a palette knife and spread the cream cheese icing evenly over the cake.
5. Sprinkle over the toasted pecan nuts.
Serve!