The Rose Cottage Recipe Book

Carrot Cake

175 g	light muscovado or soft brown sugar
175 ml	sunflower oil
3	large eggs, lightly beaten
140 g	grated carrots (about 3 medium)
100 g	raisins
1	large orange grated zest of
175 g	self-raising flour
1 tsp	bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp	ground cinnamon
½ tsp	grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)
Frosting
125 g	unsalted butter at room temperature
50 g	icing sugar
250 g	cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 180℃ (fan 160℃).
Oil and line the base and sides of an 18 cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
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.
Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients until evenly amalgamated. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy.
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.)
Cream cheese frosting: For the frosting, beat the butter and icing sugar together until soft and then beat in the cream cheese. Spread a thick layer on top of the cake.

Ingredient amounts don’t need to be exact.
May need to bake longer and at a lower temp in a loaf tin. Two small loaf tins cook for same amount as a large square tin.
Tested successfully with gluten free flour

For the cake:

340 g	self raising flour
340 g	white sugar
340 g	butter or soft spread
6 large	eggs (more if medium sized)
	milk (or water), fi needed
	baking powder
	small cake tins, greased and lined
	rainbow food colourings

For the icing:

about ½ a box	Icing sugar (more or less, to taste)
	cream cheese
	butter or soft spread.

Weigh the mixing bowl and spoon and make a note of it.
Pre-heat the oven to ???.
Mix all the cake ingredients except the colours together and add the milk until the right consistency is reached.
Reweigh the mixture.
Work out the following:
(second weighing – first weighing) / number of layers wanted.
Put the weight of the answer into a small bowl, and mix in a small amount one of the colourings thoroughly. Put it in the greased/lined cake tin, and cook for 15 mins or until cooked through. Repeat for all layers.
Wait until cool. Trim the cakes if lopsided to make them easier to stack.
Mix together all the cream cheese and butter with most of the icing sugar and taste, adding more icing sugar if needed.
Layer some frosting between the cakes, then slather the rest over the top and sides.
Pin all the way through with a couple of skewers to stop it sliding around. Refrigerate to set the icing.
Take out the skewers and eat!

350 g	full fat cream cheese
75 g	sugar
	grated rind of 1 lemon
	juice of 2 lemons
30 ml	cold water
10 to 15 g	gelatine (available in packets approx. that size)
150 ml	double cream

Beat the cheese, sugar, lemon rind and juice in a bowl until smooth.
Place the water in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the gelatine, stir and leave for 2-3 mins.
Place the bowl in a pan of hot water and stir until dissolved. Beat into the cream cheese mix.
Whip the double cream and fold in. Pour the mixture over the base and chill.
Top with flake or chocolate curls.

I use my standard cheesecake/banoffee base of 200g crushed digestives, mixed into a melted mix of 100g butter & 50g soft brown sugar but the recipe suggests you could also use chocolate digestives.
It's from a freezer cookbook, so can be frozen.