Elizabeth Hewson’s wholemeal carrot cake recipe
In my books a good carrot cake should be moist, spiced and topped with a thick layer of rich, tangy cream cheese icing.
No morning tea is complete without a cake to follow my prosciutto and bitter greens flat pie. Enter my trusty wholemeal carrot cake. It’s been a birthday cake, a dessert cake, an I’m sorry cake, and a just because cake. Really, there’s not an occasion that a carrot cake doesn’t fit. In my books a good carrot cake should be moist, spiced and topped with a thick layer of rich, tangy cream cheese icing. While no heavy machinery is needed for the cake itself, a food mixer will beat the icing far more efficiently than you ever could by hand. Like the icing, or frosting, I go heavy on the carrots, as it’s this that makes the cake so unbelievably moist and gives a natural sweetness. Controversially, I don’t add walnuts. Instead, I use wholemeal flour to bring a nuttiness to the batter. I hope you can take some time to escape this weekend – it’s morning tea time.
If you like this, try:
- Elizabeth Hewson’s Barbie-inspired pomegranate cake
- Elizabeth Hewson’s self-saucing banana pudding
- This fudgy, moist hazelnut cake is a family favourite
Wholemeal carrot cake
Ingredients
- 300g (2 cups) wholemeal flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bi-carb soda
- 230g (1¼ cups) brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (mellow flavoured)
- 450g (3 cups) grated carrot
- ¼ cup sultanas
- Cream cheese frosting
- 250g brick of full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups icing mixture, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan-forced). Grease and line a 20cm cake tin with a removable base. In a large bowl, mix together all your dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, bi-carb soda, brown sugar, mixed spice and cinnamon. In another bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add the oil and mix until combined. Pour wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix well. Fold through grated carrots and sultanas. Tip batter into your lined cake tin and give the pan a shake to remove any air. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Rest in the tin for 5 minutes then remove and cool on a wire rack. Once cool, use a serrated knife to carefully cut cake in half horizontally, ready to fill and top with icing.
- Use the whisk attachment on an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the icing mixture and vanilla and beat for at least 2 minutes or until fluffy. If you want your icing a little thicker (or if it’s a hot day), add ½ cup more of icing mixture. Spread half the frosting on top of one of the cake halves. Top with the other half, then spread remaining frosting on top. Serves 8