I absolutely adore carrot cake and have been wanting to bake one for a ages. It’s been a while since I’ve been asked to make one so I thought why don’t I bake one because I want to? Baking one in a Bundt pan is even better and such a treat.

On Sunday afternoon I was so glad to have some “me time”. Apart from Thursday night when I go to a local craft group, last week had every moment accounted for. I was even busy running around on Saturday catching up and was behind on all the chores. I even got behind with my crochet project I’m working on and when that happens, that’s when I know that it’s far too much. To relax I get my bake on and what more than to make a beautiful Bundt cake?

The recipe for this Carrot Cake recipe was really entitled Easter Bunny Cake. Although I do associate bunnies and carrots together, I do make and eat carrot cakes all year round! It includes pecan nuts in the cake batter and salted caramel in the frosting but I chose not to add these. Instead I used a slightly different frosting recipe as I wanted it to be more like a pouring icing.

To begin with, I grated three carrots which roughly gave me what I needed for the batter. I felt dead lazy at the thought of hand grating the carrots so I got the food processor with the grating blade attached to do the hard work for me. The leftovers were put into a plastic box and I’ll add them to my spaghetti bolognese on Tuesday when I make it.

I prepared the Bundt pan with melted butter and flour. I chose to use the Elegant Party Bundt pan this time which totally lives up to its name.

To begin with, I poured orange juice into a small saucepan and gently heated it along with the sultanas. These made them swell up and gain flavour.

I whisked together eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and then added some sunflower oil. Then in another bowl I put all the dry ingredients together: self raising flour, ground ginger and cinnamon. These were then folded into the mixture along with the orange infused sultanas and grated carrot.

As I was preparing the cake batter, my son came into the kitchen to prepare his lunch before going to work. He made himself some chicken wings but then needed the oven to cook them in. I hadn’t realised I’d need to put my carrot cake in at the same time. In the end I used the smaller, slower oven in my Rangemaster which usually only gets used for Sunday roasts! I put the cake in the oven at the recommended temperature (180o) and for 50 minutes.

50 minutes later and the timer went off. I opened the oven door to find the top of the cake was almost burnt! I followed the recipe to the letter too, until I looked at the oven temperature dial and noticed it was 200oC! It must have been knocked or something.

When I got the cake out of the pan, it was a dark golden but the sides and top didn’t look burnt. It was only the bottom (which because of it being a Bundt cake) was burnt!

After the cake had cooled down, I started to make a cream cheese frosting. I had bought a tub of cream cheese, only to find it was opened in the fridge and half of it missing. I had to find an alternative frosting recipe and knew that the one in the Beautiful Bundts book didn’t use a full pack. I added butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to the frosting and whisked it altogether. It came out very thick so I thinned it down with some double cream so that it was easier to spread.

I spooned the cream cheese frosting on top of the cake so that some would pour down the sides and cling to the grooves of the Elegant Party shape. There was a lot of frosting left- I’d over estimated how much I needed. I put it into a plastic tub to go in the fridge for another time.

To finish I decorated the top of my Carrot Bundt Cake with some sugar carrots.

Do you like carrot cake? Or does the thought of a vegetable in a cake leave you cold? I need to try out more different vegetables in cakes. What can you recommend?

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx