Another carrot cake

It's birthday season at the moment which means a constant layer of icing sugar dust in my kitchen. Yay?

For last week's birthday I tried another new-to-me carrot cake recipe as there's no point in having a shelf full of baking books if I always default to the same handful of recipes. This one is from Vintage Cakes, one of my favourite books to flick through as it's full of pictures of homely bakes on pretty vintage china. To be honest I'm surprised I haven't baked this recipe before.

I think I preferred this cake to the one I made for the Man's birthday. The texture felt less wet and I've come to the conclusion I prefer the flavour of a carrot cake made with dark muscovado sugar as opposed to light brown sugar. I think it brings out the spices more.

Sadly I only have one picture of this cake so you'll just have to believe me when I say it was a winner and looked very satisfying when cut.

Carrot layer cake

Recipe (once again, slightly adapted to suit what I had available) from Vintage Cakes by Jane Brocket. I also did my own thing with the icing.

Sponges:

250g self raising flour

2tsp baking powder 

In all honesty I can't remember how much spice I added, but probably 1tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp mixed spice

100g pecans, chopped 

250g dark soft brown sugar 

220ml sunflower oil

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

250g carrots, grated 

Icing:

300g icing sugar

Approx. 75g softened butter ( I used slightly salted)

Approx. 250g cream cheese (that's all I had at the time)

Zest of half an orange

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas 4. Grease and line 3 20cm/ 8" round cake tins with baking parchment.

Combine the dry ingredients into a bowl: flour, baking powder and spices. Stir in the chopped pecans.

In a large bowl mix together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs and whisk again until smooth.

Add the grated carrots and the dry mix (flour and nuts) to the wet mix (eggs, sugar, oil) and mix everything together until well combined.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake in the oven for approx. 25 minutes, until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool for a few minutes before removing from their tins and leaving to cool fully on a wire cooling rack.

For the icing mix together the butter, orange zest and icing sugar then add the cream cheese and mix until everything is smooth and fully combined. (Tip: if you have a stand mixer and find your icing goes lumpy try swapping the paddle attachment for the whisk attachment. I usually find the whisk helps to incorporate the stubborn butter lumps.)

Once the cakes are cool, spread the icing onto each sponge and stack into a layer cake. Optional: add chopped pecans on top for decoration.

Carrot and orange cake

Surprisingly, I'm not returning with another variation of mini tarts (although I still really want to bake a lemon curd version) but with a carrot cake I baked for the Man's birthday last week.

Last year I baked the carrot and ginger cake from the Hummingbird Bakery's "Cake Days" book for his birthday. Hummingbird Bakery sure do know how to make an excellent carrot cake. I often default to the carrot cake recipe from their first book for family birthdays, however I fancied making something different and a bit smaller on this occasion.

After flicking through my recipe books I landed on a carrot cake from The Great British Book of Baking, the baking book which accompanied the very first series of The Great British Bake Off. It's a lovely book yet somehow I've baked very little from it over the years. The recipes and accompanying pictures make me feel nostalgic for the early series which were very much centred around traditional (dare I say old fashioned?) wholesome home baking. 

I love orange in a carrot cake. It gives it such a sunshine-y, fresh lift in flavour which feels appropriate for a Spring birthday. I also think orange zest makes the best addition to cream cheese icing (which also attracted me to this recipe.) For the last few years I've found it difficult to make a cream cheese icing without it.

It was only when I was typing up the recipe for the blog that I discovered that I had added the zest of a whole orange when I was only meant to add half to the sponge mix. Oops! Luckily we're both big fans of orange flavour.

My only criticism regarding the cake was that I found it a touch too heavy/wet in texture, but my eaters thought I was being overly picky. I don't think this recipe will replace my love for the Hummingbird Bakery's carrot cake but it was fun to try something different and dip into a baking book I haven't used in a long time.

Carrot and orange cake

Recipe very mildly adapted (because I dislike nutmeg and misread orange quantities) from The Great British Book of Baking 

Sponges:

225g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder 

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground mixed spice

225g soft light brown muscovado sugar

Zest of an orange (or half, if you read the recipe accurately. . . )

100g chopped walnut pieces

3 medium size eggs

150ml sunflower oil

250g grated carrots (Squeeze out excess moisture if they feel really wet.)

Icing:

200g full fat cream cheese

50g softened butter (I use slightly salted)

150g icing sugar

Zest of 1/2 an orange 

2 tsp orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan 160C/ 350F/ Gas 4. Grease two 20cm/ 8" round cake tins and line the bases with baking parchment. 

Combine the flour, baking powder and spices in a large bowl. Next mix in the sugar, orange zest and nuts followed by the eggs, oil and carrots. Mix everything together until well incorporated then divide equally between the prepared cake tins.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 25 minutes, until risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Turn the cakes out of their tins and leave to fully cool on wire cooling racks.

For the icing, mix together the icing sugar, orange zest and butter until smooth before adding the cream cheese and mixing until well incorporated and smooth. 

Divide the icing between the two sponges and stack as a sandwich (layer) cake. Decorate with more orange zest or walnuts if desired. 

Carrot and ginger layer cake

I let Man pick a cake from my recipe books for his birthday last week and he chose the carrot and ginger cake from Hummingbird Bakery's "Cake days" book.

Although I have baked many recipes from this book I haven't made this one before which is surprising considering how much I love trying different carrot cake recipes. I can now happily report that this is another winner of a carrot cake recipe which I can add to my repertoire. 

Admittedly it is a gigantic beast of a cake (even my Kitchenaid struggled with containing the batter!) so it's definitely more of a celebration cake. However there's no reason why it can't be scaled down for a more everyday sized cake. I've done this before with Hummingbird Bakery cake recipes and it has worked well.

This was also my first time using root ginger in a cake. I fully expected the ginger to be really fiery and dominant in flavour, but it thankfully wasn't overpowering. It produced a lovely, warmly spiced carrot cake. 

Another first was roasting the pecans before adding to the cake batter. Sometimes I can find pecans a bit chewy(?) but roasting them first gives them a lovely, toasty crunch. Normally walnuts are my nut of choice for a carrot cake but this has potentially converted me to pecans.

And I can't finish this post without waxing lyrical about the orange cream cheese icing. My goodness it is tasty and perfectly compliments a carrot cake. I don't know why it took me until last year to try adding orange zest to cream cheese icing but it has fast become my favourite flavoured icing. I did my own thing when it came to icing quantities as I generally find Hummingbird Bakery icing quantities to be excessive. I also prefer a higher ratio of cream cheese to icing sugar. Cream cheese icing needs to be cream cheese-y!

Ginger and carrot cake

450g peeled and grated carrots

2 tbsp peeled and grated root ginger

80ml buttermilk

3 eggs (large)

1tsp vanilla extract

350ml sunflower oil

420g caster sugar

500g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp ground ginger 

80g pecans, roasted and chopped

Icing:

Admittedly I didn't accurately weigh things out, but it's roughly the following:

300g icing sugar

125g butter (softened)

445g Cream cheese (1 bigger pack + standard size pack of Philadelphia)

Zest of 1 orange.

Preheat the oven to 170c / 150c fan/ 325f/ gas mark 3. Grease and line 4 8" round cake tins.

Roast the nuts first. Tip them into a non stick saucepan and toss them over a medium-high heat for a few minutes until they smell toasty. Leave to cool them chop into small chunks.

In a large bowl combine the carrots, root ginger, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, oil and sugar. In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices. Add the dry mix to the wet mix in 3 batches, mixing well after each addition. Once fully incorporated, stir in the chopped pecans.

Divide the batter between 4 tins (or divide and portion into quarters if you only have 2 tins and need to bake the cakes in 2 batches like me.) Bake for approximately 30 minutes until risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack before icing.

For the icing, mix together the butter and the icing sugar. Add the cream cheese and orange zest and mix for a few minutes until fully combined, light and fluffy.

Level the cakes if needed. Spread the icing on top of each sponge and stack them. Crumb coat the outside of the layered cakes (if you can be bothered) or just use the remaining icing to smooth round the outside and top of the cake. Decorate with extra pecans on top.

carrot, coconut and lime cake

I was flicking through my baking books one sleepless night last month when I came across this recipe and thought it would be a nice cake to bake for Father's Day. My Dad loves carrot cake, coconut and lime flavours, and I'm a fan of trying new carrot cake recipes. Everyone's a winner!

This is the most summery carrot cake I've ever baked or eaten. The coconut and lime make it so light, fresh and zingy; totally different to the more traditional spiced carrot cake with darker sugar and nuts. Although I'm probably still more of a fan of the latter this was a lovely, refreshing change. I particularly enjoyed the lime in the cream cheese icing. I always forget how much I like lime.

It's worth noting that the icing tasted very butter-heavy. Although I didn't mind it I'd feel tempted to change the icing ingredient ratios if making again.

I made a couple of ingredient substitutions due to what I had in the cupboard and what I could get from the local shop. The original recipe uses shredded coconut, which I imagine would add great texture to the cake but I could only get desiccated coconut. As you can see this worked fine too. I toasted some of the desiccated coconut for decoration on top and made way too much so expect to see more coconut on the blog!

Carrot, coconut and lime cake

Recipe very mildly adapted from National Trust "Traditional Teatime Recipes" book by Jane Pettigrew.

cake:
2 large eggs
100g (4oz) soft light brown sugar (I used a mixture of muscovado and caster sugar as that's what I had in the cupboard)
75ml (3fl oz) sunflower oil
175g (6oz) grated carrot
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g (2oz) desiccated coconut

icing:
75g (3oz) full fat cream cheese
75g (3oz) slightly salted butter
50g (2oz) icing sugar
grated rind of one lime

topping:
grated rind of one lime and some toasted desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/375F/Gas mark 5. Grease and line a 18cm/7 inch round tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl with an electric whisk beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the oil and mix again well. Fold in the remaining ingredients until everything is combined then pour into the prepared cake tin and level the top. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden, risen and a cake skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. My cake was ready at 33 minutes, so I suggest keeping an eye on it after 30 minutes has passed. Leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar and butter for a few minutes until light and creamy, then add in the cream cheese and lime rind. Mix again until well combined then spread over the fully cooled cake. Decorate the cake with more grated lime and some toasted desiccated coconut.

a fruity carrot cake

A few months ago I had a craving for carrot cake and wanted to celebrate having survived my first block of beginner adult ballet classes. Instead of defaulting to my usual favourite recipes I flicked through my baking books to find something slightly different.

Perhaps a controversial statement but I enjoy dried fruit in carrot cakes so this fruitier carrot cake recipe from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook appealed to me. I've always meant to try adding raisins or sultanas to my carrot cakes yet somehow this is the first time I've done it.

The resulting cake was well spiced, dark and had satisfying bursts of orange juice-soaked raisins and chunks of walnuts. My only gripe was that it took an eternity to bake in the oven. There's no way the recommended temperature and timing in the book are correct. My gut instinct thought the temperature looked too high and it was right. When I opened the oven door after the recommended 45 minutes the top was borderline burnt yet the inside of the cake was still raw so I turned the temperature down and laid a folded sheet of greaseproof paper on top of the tin to stop the top from burning further.

As I made this a couple of months ago I can't remember how much longer it took, I'm guessing an extra 20-30 minutes. I know that when I baked this cake again a week later I baked it at a lower temperature for at least an hour and it turned out much better.

I also found the cream cheese icing from the recipe slightly too sweet so I added more cream cheese. There's no point in cream cheese icing if you can't taste the tang of the cream cheese! It's almost the best thing about carrot cake, surely?

I think this recipe has the potential to become a favourite with a little bit of tinkering. I just need to write down my changes next time since I have the memory of a goldfish. If/when I do make this cake again I'll update my recipe at the bottom of the post.

As mentioned at the beginning of the post, I baked this cake to celebrate having survived my first block of adult ballet classes without my dodgy back or leg going into sciatic spasm. Yay! Progress, people! I've now finished my second block of classes and making small steps of progress. I can see a difference in my flexibility and I'm feeling slightly less uncoordinated. My core strength is still pants though and I really struggle with stability in pirouttes and turns. I just wobble and fall to the side EVERY DAMN TIME.

I'm also the proud owner of a pair of ballet slippers. My first pair! I was so happy when I put these on my feet for the first time. Childhood dream fulfilled! Darcey Bussel better watch her back. HA!

Carrot cake

Recipe adapted from Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook (Published 2013)

cake:

100g raisins (or sultanas, whichever you prefer)

juice from 1 large orange

175g self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

175g soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs

125ml sunflower oil

175g grated carrots

50g chopped walnuts

cream cheese icing:

100g cream cheese (possibly more, sorry I can't remember. Add to taste!)

50g softened butter

225g icing sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

First, soak the sultanas in orange juice in a bowl. You can either leave them to soak overnight, or if like me you forget to do that, set the sultanas and juice in a pan and place on the hob over a low heat for about 5 minutes or until the sultanas have soaked up some of the juice.

Grease and line a 20cm round, springform cake tin and preheat the oven. The original recipe says to preheat to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6 however I think this is way too high. I would recommend 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. I think that's what I went with the second time I made this cake and it turned out better.

Sift together the flour, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix. Whisk the eggs in a separate small bowl and add them to the sunflower oil. Pour the egg mix into the flour mixture and mix well. Add the grated carrot, chopped walnuts and soaked sultanas and fold the mixture until fully combined.

Pour the cake batter into the tin and spread it out evenly. The original recipe says to bake for 40-45 minutes but as mentioned earlier I found that to be way off the mark. Baked at the lower temperature I recommend, it should take about an hour. Keep an eye on it after about 50 minutes and if it looks cooked on top but is still raw in the middle when you stick a knife/skewer into the centre of the cake, then put a greaseproof paper hat on it until the cake is fully baked. Once baked, turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar and butter then add the cream cheese and vanilla extract. Whisk for a few minutes until very smooth. Spread the icing on top of the cake once the cake is completely cool and decorate with more chopped walnuts and a dusting of cinnamon.

carrot and coconut battenberg cake

I've had this recipe bookmarked for ages as I've been itching to make a battenberg cake for a while and I was really intrigued by the flavours of this version.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out; it's a classic with a twist. In hindsight I could have decorated the cake with one of those fancy crimped edges that Paul and Mary would have done on the Great British Bake Off, but ultimately I just want to tidy up the kitchen and eat the cake. It's a wonder I can restrain myself long enough to take a few photographs for the blog.

I'm not sure how to describe the flavour of this cake. The dominant flavour is almond, obviously due to the marzipan (mmmm, marzipan) followed by apricot as it is in both the sponge and the jam, then the warming spices of cinnamon and ginger. Despite carrot and coconut being in the title of the recipe I'd say they provide texture and  moisture rather than big flavour. They're there, but more subtle.

The carrot cake half didn't rise as well as the coconut half so I had a bit of levelling to do once the cakes were cool. I'm assuming that's due to extra moisture from the carrots, apricot chunks and orange food colouring. Other than that the cake came together very smoothly. Although I'm generally not keen to add food colouring to cakes, I love the extra punch the orange colouring adds to the carrot cake half. It really enhances the classic battenberg chequerboard pattern.

If you love battenberg cake and fancy something a little bit different then I'd definitely recommend giving this recipe a go :)

Carrot and coconut battenberg cake

Recipe (marginally adapted) from "Peek-a-boo cakes" by Joanna Farrow. Pub. 2014

carrot sponge:

100g margarine

100g light soft brown sugar

2 eggs, large

100g self-raising flour

1/2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp ground ginger

1/2tsp ground cinnamon

75g carrot, finely grated

40g dried apricots, finely chopped

25g ground almonds

orange food colouring

coconut sponge:

100g margarine

100g caster sugar

2 eggs, large

100g self-raising flour

25g dessicated coconut

1/2 tsp baking powder

decoration:

200g apricot jam

375g marzipan

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/160 Fan/Gas 4. Cut a strip of cardboard the same length and depth as a 8" / 20cm square cake tin (I used a cereal box). Cover the strip with baking foil and fit it down the centre of the tin. Grease and line the bases and sides of the two sections with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, beat together all the carrot cake ingredients, excluding the food colouring, for about a minute until smooth. Add some food colouring to enhance the "carrot" colour, mix well, then pour the mixture into one side of the tin. Level the surface.

In another large bowl, beat together all the coconut cake ingredients for a minute until smooth. Pour the mixture into the other side of the tin and level the top so it rises evenly. Bake the cakes in the centre of the oven for about 40 minutes until well risen and just firm to touch. Cool on a wire rack before peeling off the greaseproof paper.

Once the cakes are completely cool, set them side by side on a work surface and level their height using a sharp knife. It's important they're the same height for stacking. Trim the sides of the cakes if necessary as well. Cut each sponge in half lengthwise so you have 4 strips of sponge. Warm the jam in a saucepan on the hob to slacken it and remove any lumps with a sieve if necessary. Use half the jam to stick the sponges together, stacking them in a chequered pattern.

Sprinkle a layer of icing sugar on a work surface and roll out 375g of the marzipan in a rectangular shape until it is big enough to wrap around the cake. Brush the marzipan with the remaining warm jam, put the cake in the centre and wrap the marzipan up over the sides. Trim until neat and turn the cake over so the overlap is at the bottom. Brush the ends of the cake with any remaining jelly and any left over/spare marzipan can be used be roll out into squares to cover the ends.

carrot bundt cake

Another birthday cake! There have been 4 family birthdays in the last few weeks so I have been very busy in the kitchen. This one was for brother number 2 last weekend. He loves carrot cake so his birthday cake choice was a no brainer.

It turns out that Hummingbird Bakery triple layer cake recipes, or certainly the carrot cake one, fill a 10 inch ring/bundt tin perfectly! I decided to revisit this recipe after not feeling fully satisfied with the one I made a couple of weeks ago.

I've come to the conclusion that for topping carrot cakes I like a higher quantity of cream cheese in my cream cheese icing. The Hummingbird Bakery's cream cheese icing has a bit too much icing sugar in it for my carrot cake tastes. A different cream cheese icing on top made the world of difference, to me anyway!

I've also come to the conclusion that I prefer walnuts to pecans in carrot cake (despite liking pecans as a nut more) and I like the cake served as a big slab rather than cut into multiple layers. I think it makes more of the rustic texture. I like being able to see the carrot gratings and big chunks of (wal)nuts. Does that make sense?

Who would have thought I'd become such a fussy bugger with carrot cake. What an odd discovery.

What's your favourite carrot cake recipe? Any other fussy carrot cake eaters out there?

Carrot bundt cake

Cake recipe same as here. 

Changes included using walnuts instead of pecans and a 10 inch/ 25.5cm bundt tin instead of three 8 inch/ 20cm cake tins. Grease the tin thoroughly with cake release spray and a dusting of plain flour. Tip any excess flour out into the sink. Bake at the same temperature but extend the baking time to roughly 1 hour until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire cooling rack.

cream cheese icing:

100g icing sugar (roughly, I ended up adding a bit more)

175g full fat cream cheese

50g softened butter

a few drops of vanilla extract

Put the icing sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla in a bowl and mix together until smooth. Add more icing sugar if you feel the mixture needs thickening or sweetening. Cover the whole (cooled) cake with the icing and decorate with a dusting of ground cinnamon and extra crushed walnuts.

pastel sprinkle birthday carrot cake

What do you do when you've made a bit of a botched job at smoothing down the icing on the sides of your cake? Cover it in a sugary, pastel rainbow!

Pastel rainbows, however, don't cover up structural problems. I was a bit lazy with levelling my layers so the cake ended up somewhat freeform. Not to matter though, I was fairly confident I was onto a winner flavour wise as the batter tasted good.

The finished cake was very tasty indeed. Hurrah!

I have been wanting to try out the Hummingbird Bakery's carrot cake recipe for years and since my sister in law's only stipulation for her birthday cake this year was "cream cheese icing" I thought now was as good a time as any. 

I'm not sure if I love it quite as much as their Hummingbird layer cake, but that really is just personal preference. It's a very satisfying, well spiced carrot cake and I'd definitely bake it again. My only regret is not having a dusting of cinnamon on top, which is what I usually do with carrot cakes, but I feared it would clash with the sprinkles!

Triple layer carrot cake

Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

300g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

300ml sunflower oil

300g plain flour

1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

300g carrots, peeled and grated

100g walnuts (I used pecans instead) chopped 

cream cheese icing:

600g icing sugar

100g butter, softened (I use slightly salted)

250g full fat cream cheese

I also added 1/2tsp vanilla bean paste for extra flavour

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line 3 round 20cm (8 inch) cake tins. Beat together the sugar, eggs and oil until well combined. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger and slowly add to the egg mixture until fully combined. Stir in the grated carrots and chopped nuts until evenly dispersed then divide the mixture between the cake tins. Bake for 20-25mins until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

For the icing, combine the butter and icing sugar. I find this easier to start off by hand with a spoon as the mixer just makes massive dust clouds! Once combined, add the cream cheese icing in one go and mix together (by mixer) for 5 minutes until the mixture is light and very fluffy. Use to generously fill and cover the cooled cake. I had enough icing left over to pipe a simple star border around the top of the cake.

For the pastel border I patted the sprinkles into the cake in their colour rows, working from the bottom up. I used my right hand to press them on and held my left hand underneath, with the edge of my palm lightly touching the side of the cake to catch and press in any falling sprinkles. It was quite a messy procedure (and there's probably a better way of doing it!) so I recommend keeping a baking tray underneath where you're working.

Dad's birthday carrot cake

For Dad's birthday this year I decided to make a carrot cake. He has been growing vegetables this year so I thought it would be a great idea to use some of his homegrown carrots.

I used my usual carrot cake recipe as I like its chunkiness. It turned out slightly wetter than usual, and it was definitely fully cooked, so I'm putting it down to the amount of orange juice I added (it was a pretty big orange.)

I decided to keep this cake dairy free by using an orange glaze (just icing sugar with fresh orange juice) rather than cream cheese icing as we're fairly sure now that my eldest nephew is lactose/dairy intolerant. I wanted to bake a cake which everybody could enjoy.

Although I probably still prefer a cream cheese icing, the orange glaze complimented the cake really well. I'm on the look out for more dairy free bakes so I'd be delighted if anybody has any good ones to share.

Now for some funny photos! Dad has quite a few hilariously weird carrots. I used only the best mutants for his birthday cake :)

I drew eyes on the carrot on the right as his "growths" looked like an awesome moustache. You have no idea how much enjoyment I got from this.

Easily amused :)

carrot and banana cake

I really couldn't be bothered "dressing" these photographs, but perhaps the lack of fuss suits this simple, rustic cake.

I baked this a couple of weeks ago (before the UK's ridiculous heatwave) and it's a cake I've baked before. All-in-one mixing recipes are just so satisfying and any cake with cream cheese icing is a winner in my book.

Anyone else in the UK struggling with the freakish heatwave? I admire all the food bloggers who have put up posts recently, I can barely go near an oven to cook at the moment never mind bake. I'm just not built for heat.

Despite feeling like I'm melting, I've been having a great holiday over the past week visiting friends in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Carlisle (such a jetsetter!) I may not be baking but I've still been eating plenty of cake. And ice-cream!

Mary Berry carrot cake

Now Mary Berry, I don't like to disagree with you, after all you are baking royalty, but is this strictly a carrot cake when it contains banana?

I have to clarify that this is not a bad thing (unless you hate bananas). In fact, I thought it gave the cake a lovely smooth texture which contrasted nicely which the chopped walnuts. Not to mention the fact I love bananas in baking.

My aunty has a very similar cake recipe which we always refer to as passion cake. I always thought the addition of banana was what made it a "passion" as opposed to a "carrot" cake. After a bit of Googling I now see that the terms are fairly interchangable. Perhaps I won't complain to Mary Berry after all, especially when this cake is so juicy and tasty.

Yes, that is a rather large slice. And yes, I did eat it all. I admit it, I'm greedy.

Usually I put a lemon and honey cream cheese icing on carrot cake however Ms Berry called for a vanilla flavoured cream cheese icing. It was rather tasty indeed. I really could eat an unholy amount of cream cheese icing, with or without the cake.

If you'd like to try this recipe (you really should) you can find it here. The only difference I found with this online version is the icing. In Mary's Baking Bible she says to use 175g full fat soft cheese (I use Philly cheese), 50g softened butter, 100g sifted icing sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract. Decorate with as many walnut halves as you want.

Spiced carrot traybake

I appear to have a fixation with Mary Berry's Baking Bible at the moment. I keep going back to it despite receiving two new baking books at Christmas which I haven't ventured into yet.

Like the lemon drizzle traybake I made last week, this traybake rose beautifully. It has a very light and moist texture.

I was a bit worried that the cake might not be as good as it should because I was an ounce short with my grated carrot, but it doesn't appear to have made a massive difference. The only other thing to note is that this traybake only took 40 minutes to bake, not 50-60 minutes as the recipe states.

American spiced carrot traybake

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

275g (10z) self-raising flour

350g (12oz) caster sugar

2 level tsp baking powder

75g (3oz) chopped unsalted mixed nuts. (I just used loads of walnuts as it's my favourite)

3 level tsp ground cinnamon

2 level tsp ground ginger

300ml (1/2pint) sunflower oil

275g (10z) grated carrots

4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:

400g (14oz) full-fat soft cheese

4 tsp clear honey

2 tsp lemon juice

chopped unsalted mixed nuts to decorate (yes, you guessed it, I used more walnuts!)

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas 4. Grease a 30 x 23cm (12 x 9in) traybake or roasting tin then line the base with baking parchment. Measure all the dry cake ingredients into a large bowl. Add the oil, grated carrot, eggs (one at a time) and vanilla extract, beating between each addition. Pour into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 50-60 minutes (mine took 40 minutes) or until the cake is risen, golden brown in colour and firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.

To make the topping, mix together the cheese, honey and lemon juice, adding more lemon juice if necessary, to make a spreading consistency. (I added some icing sugar to taste, as I like the sweetness.) Spread evenly over the cake then sprinkle over the chopped nuts to decorate and cut into squares.

Carrot cake

Oh how I love carrot cake. Proper, chunky carrot cake. I wanted to make it last night but discovered that the philly cheese in the fridge was mouldy. I wasn't going to ice a cake with mouldy icing and I certainly wasn't going to bake a cake without any icing to put on it. 

So today I made the carrot cake, or perhaps I should say yesterday. I started late in the evening and the cake only came out the oven after midnight. Who cares, it's amazing! I always use the same recipe and haven't been able to try others as I love this one so damn much.

Frosted carrot cake

Recipe from Children's Quick and Easy Cook Book - I got this for Christmas when I was about 10. It was first cookbook and I still occasionally use it!

225g (8oz) carrots

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

140g (5oz) soft brown muscovado sugar

grated zest of 1 orange

2 tsp ground cinnamon

115g (4oz) chopped roasted hazelnuts or chopped walnuts (I use walnuts)

55g (2oz) desiccated coconut

2 large eggs

150ml (1/4 pint) sunflower oil

juice of 1 orange

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm (8 inch) round, loose bottomed cake tin. Scrub or peel the carrots, trim off their tops, then grate. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl then mix in the grated carrots, salt, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, nuts and coconut. Beat the eggs. Add the the eggs, sunflower oil and orange juice to the cake mixture and mix everything together well. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 60-75 minutes until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean. (I usually put a layer of greaseproof paper over the cake for the last 15 minutes to stop the top from burning.) Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

I usually make up my own icing to taste. Maybe roughly 115g (4oz) cream cheese, 30g (1oz) butter, 55g (2oz) icing sugar and a squeeze of honey and lemon juice to taste. Basically I just add enough of each to achieve a good spreadable consistency and nice flavour.