carrot cake

Whenever Da and I host a gathering at our home and I do the grocery shopping before the gathering, I tend to buy carrots. No matter what the theme of the gathering is, I seem to use carrots in my cooking. For example, I use carrots in the following dishes:-

(a) pasta

(b) lasagne

(c) curries

(d) stir-fried vegetables

(e) steam boat

I like the young carrots from Australia sold in a packet as they are generally sweet.

As such, I invariably end up with unused carrots after the party is over. Whenever this happens, I will try to make a carrot cake so as not to waste the unused carrots.

Set out below is one of my favourite recipes for carrot cakes. Not only is it easy to make, the inclusion of ground cinnamon in the recipe makes the cake very flavourful.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup castor sugar

1 cup peanut oil

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups grated raw carrots

1 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup ground hazelnut

1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Grease a 9 inch square cake pan and line with greaseproof paper.

2. Sift the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and ground cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Fold in the grated carrots, chopped nuts, ground hazelnut and salt.

4. Fold in the flour mixture and stir until mixed.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

6. Bake at 165 degrees celsius for 1 hour.

7. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.