Classic Carrot Cake

It's good to have a classic recipe which you can rely on and "almost" guarantees that everybody loves it.  

This is my humble simple carrot cake. The main ingredients weigh 6 oz (175g) so it's very easy to remember. 

This is nothing fancy, but it always makes me feel cosy. It's a cake, but with vegetables in it, so I don't feel so guilty........... am I totally wrong? 

Ah, by the way, this recipe has slightly less fat than conventional carrot cake recipes.  

6 oz Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• 6oz (175g) brown soft sugar
• 6oz (175g) self-raising flour
• 6oz (175g) grated carrot

• 150ml sunflower oil
• 100g sultanas
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking-powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• grated zest of 1 large orange

• 175g icing sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp orange juice or lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C.
2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients – when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)
5. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.