Carrot and Ginger Cakes

Don’t be too shocked. This is the first baking recipe I’ve featured on the blog for a while. I thought I owed you one. It took me until I was an adult to appreciate vegetables in cake. Pre 2001 I thought carrot cake was evil stuff. It’s now on the top list of cakes I regularly bake, or get requested to bake.

• I use rapeseed oil for the nutty flavour and keep the cake moist
• Rather than grating carrots I chop them finely skin and all in the blender. I can’t be faffing and risking my knuckles with grating carrots.
• I add some raisins for juicy sweetness
• I always serve it with cheesecake icing. The slight tartness of this style of icing works really well with the cake.

These cakes use 3 forms of ginger: fresh, ground and curd. Ginger curd is the type of ingredient you buy for a recipe then you’re left with half a jar wondering what to do with it. It goes well in pancakes, on the bottom layer of a dark chocolate torte, as a sandwich layer in a cake of as it is here in the icing.

Hint: when making cheesecake icing your butter must be soft or the icing will struggle to come together. If you want to make the icing stiffer so you can pipe it add some more icing sugar, but of course this will make the icing much sweeter.

Carrot & Ginger Cakes
Makes 6 cupcake sized cakes

For the cakes

• 1 egg
• 70ml rapeseed oil
• 100g soft dark sugar
• 150g finely grated carrots
• 50g raisins
• 90g self-raising flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 freshly grated ginger

For the ginger cheesecake icing

• 25g cream cheese
• 25g butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp orange extract
• 30g ginger preserve/curd
• 110g icing sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150º. Put 6 cupcake cases in a deep cupcake/muffin tin.
2. In a bowl beat the egg then stir in the rapeseed oil, sugar and carrots then the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and the two gingers. Yes the mixture looks really rather sloppy and unappetising at this stage but stick with it.
3. Fill each cupcake case 2/3 full with the mixture. Bake for 30min until cakes are risen and cooked through. Remove from tin and allow to cool.
4. To make the icing beat together the cream cheese and softened butter until well combined then stir in the orange extract and ginger curd. Gradually beat in the icing sugar until you soft, smooth icing. Spoon the icing on to the cakes.
5. As this icing contains cream cheese if that cakes are not being eaten within a few hours of being made it’s worth them being kept in the fridge especially during hot weather.