About the bake
This moist light muscovado carrot cake is an ideal spring time treat, whether it be an Easter celebration or simply enjoyed with a warm cup of tea. This cake is bursting with flavour from hints of mixed spices, coconut, walnut and carrot, the caramel undertones of Billington's light muscovado sugar and drizzled with a sweet, zesty orange syrup. And if that wasn't enough it is topped with a fluffy cream cheese frosting with a refreshingly twist of lime running through it. Simply moreish!
Method
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan /gas mark 4) and prepare two 7" circular sandwich tins.
Step 2:
Sift together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the light muscovado sugar, breaking down any lumps followed by the chopped walnuts, grated carrot and dessicated coconut.
Step 3:
Finally stir in the eggs and sunflower oil and mix until just combined. Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 prepared tins and place into the oven.
Step 4:
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Remove from the oven.
Step 5:
Make the orange syrup by heating together in a small pan the orange juice and light muscovado sugar until all the sugar has dissolved and a syrup formed. Brush the top of the warm cakes with the orange syrup whilst still in the tins. Leave to cool in the tins before turning out onto a wire rack.
Step 6:
To make the icing beat together the softened butter and cream cheese before sifting in the icing sugar. Beat well together and finally stir in the lime zest and juice.
Step 7:
To assemble the cakes place a layer of icing on the base of one of the cakes before sandwiching together with the other cake and spreading the remaining icing over the top. Decorate with chopped pistachios and lime zest as desired.
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 210g Self raising white flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp Mixed spice
- 1 pinch Salt
- 210g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 75g Walnuts (chopped)
- 240g Carrot(s) (grated)
- 50g Dessicated coconut
- 3 Medium free range eggs
- 100ml Sunflower oil
For the Orange Syrup
- 50g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 1 Orange(s) (juice)
- 50g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
For the Buttercream
- 400g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
- 75g Unsalted butter (softened)
- 75g Full fat cream cheese
- 1 Lime (juice & zest)
- 400g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
For the Decoration
- 60g Pistachio nuts (finely chopped)
- 1 Lime (zest)
Utensils
- 2x 7in circular sandwich tins
- Large mixing bowl
- Small saucepan
- Pastry brush
- Wire cooling rack
Nutritional Information
per 134g- 550cal Energy
- 26g Fat
- 8.9g of which Saturates
- 71g Carbohydrates
- 57g of which Sugars
- 6.4g Protein
- 0.6g Salt
Recipe Reviews
First time making this and the Billingtons muscovado in this recipe made it taste so much better than other recipes I have tried. Thank you www.bakingmad.com a very good recipe and my new favourite that I will sue again and recommend to friends.
Not so good
Best Carrot Cake Ever .... biggest compliment I received was my Dad thinking it was an M&S cake!!!
I read the reviews and took on board the comments about the sugar quantity and frosting.
So I used 100g sugar.
I doubled up on frosting so I could comfortably frost the entire cake once sandwiched.
My change I would incorporate when making again...I would only add half the amount i.e. 25g of dessicated coconut. Although it had a great taste the coconut was a bit too much for my personal taste. To be honest .... you coukd actually leave it out as the carrots and oil give such a moist taste.
The syrup was lovely and applied on tbe cakes when warm.
Add half the orange juice and add more as you go along. My syrup was very fluid and not syrup like.
This is a fab cake.
I decorated all over with frosting.
Added carrot decorations bought from large supermarket and stuck them around the cake. Added walnuts around the cake top and created frosting peaks on the top and sprinkled chopped pistachio nuts and again around the base.
I did use one of them frosting scrappers on the side of the cake and them added the pistachios around base.
I made this for my husband's birthday. He loved it and sime friends thought photo of the cake was from Costco.
Lovely lovely cake.
Keeps well in the fridge but it will not be in there long as it pulls you to it ... eat me!
Thank you bakingmad.com for this excellent recipie.
Made this for the first time last week and I can't believe how easy it is to make a near-perfect carrot cake! Didn't have dessicated coconut so left it out and it was fine. Tasted so good that we just ate the cake and didn't bother with the syrup and buttercream!
Made it again at the weekend and added a little ginger for a bit more zing and some flame raisins.
The result made me feel like a proper baker when really I'm just starting, thank you so much!
First attempt and loved it! Thank you so much
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 210g Self raising white flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp Mixed spice
- 1 pinch Salt
- 210g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 75g Walnuts (chopped)
- 240g Carrot(s) (grated)
- 50g Dessicated coconut
- 3 Medium free range eggs
- 100ml Sunflower oil
For the Orange Syrup
- 50g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 1 Orange(s) (juice)
- 50g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
For the Buttercream
- 400g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
- 75g Unsalted butter (softened)
- 75g Full fat cream cheese
- 1 Lime (juice & zest)
- 400g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
For the Decoration
- 60g Pistachio nuts (finely chopped)
- 1 Lime (zest)
Utensils
- 2x 7in circular sandwich tins
- Large mixing bowl
- Small saucepan
- Pastry brush
- Wire cooling rack
Nutritional Information
per 134g- 550cal Energy
- 26g Fat
- 8.9g of which Saturates
- 71g Carbohydrates
- 57g of which Sugars
- 6.4g Protein
- 0.6g Salt