Carrot cake is one of those things we wish we had tried sooner in life, there were so many childhood years where we missed out on such good cake. I'm sure everyone has had that moment of confusion like 'wait, is there really carrot in this cake?'. The answer is yes by the way, incase that moment is right now. The realisation usually happens when you're a child, but it's usually a categorical no when you think your parents are trying to sneakily get you to eat more vegetables. Vegetables in cake, really?!
It turns out those sneaky carrots give you THE most fluffy and oh so moist cakes - or cookies if you have Liam Charles' recipe book. We've eaten every last crumb of these cake bars and still can't get over how incredibly fluffy they are. We swirled in a cream cheese filling which just adds a perfect sweetness to the gorgeously spicy cake. The orange icing drizzle, orange zest and walnuts are the ideal toppings for extra added tastiness and a delicious crunch. These cake bars are just divine with every flavour enhancing the others for an indulgent sweet but spicy delight.
They are SO easy to make, and require very little attention span, so what are you waiting for?
Ingredients:
115g unsalted butter, melted
180g light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g self-raising flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
pinch of salt
130g carrots (around 4 small carrots), grated
For the cream cheese filling...
4oz cream cheese
60g caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
¾ tsp vanilla extract
For decoration...
4 tbsp icing sugar
zest of 2 oranges
juice of ½ orange
handful of walnuts, chopped
Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC Fan/180ºC, and line a square tin with greaseproof paper.
To make the carrot cake mixture, start by melting your butter - in the microwave is easiest but make sure your bowl is microwave safe. Then in a mixing bowl, add the melted butter and brown sugar and beat to combine. Then, beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Stir in the self-raising flour, cinnamon, mixed spice, baking powder and pinch of salt and stir until you have a smooth mixture. Lastly, fold in the grated carrot until evenly dispersed.
For the cream cheese filling, add the cream cheese, caster sugar, egg yolk and vanilla into a bowl and mix until smooth and creamy. Done!
Pour around half of the carrot cake mixture into the tin and spread out evenly. Then add half of the cream cheese mixture by adding it in spoonfuls onto the carrot cake mixture. Cover this with the rest of the carrot cake mixture, spread out with a spatula, and then add the remaining cream cheese mixture in spoonfuls on top. Then, using a knife swirl the two mixtures together for a marbled effect, making sure to get all the way down. Don't over swirl though or else the mixture will just disappear into the cake.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes, until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and set aside to cool completely.
Put the icing sugar into a small bowl, and then add the orange juice a bit at a time until you have the perfect drizzling consistency. Using either a spoon or a piping bag, drizzle the icing over the cake. Then top with the orange zest and chopped walnuts.
Taking a sharp knife cut the cake into pieces. We went for 16 squares but you can go for squares or bars as big as you want.
(You will probably want to eat the whole thing anyway so you could always keep it as one big square for yourself - people may judge you but we won't!)
We really hope you enjoyed this post as much as we loved eating it!
Make sure you let us know if you give these a go, we especially love seeing those posts. Tag us on any of our social media platforms if you do!
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Antonia and Imogen x
