Supersized Carrot Cake

Finished slice of cake!

Today I made a massive carrot cake for a coffee morning tomorrow, it'll cut into 45 generous pieces, but I thought I'd just put the original recipe in here - I tripled it! It's an adaptation of the BBC GoodFood carrot cake recipe, but with extra carrots and spices to make it really moist and delicious!

It has the added benefit of being dairy free, so if you've got friends coming over with dietary requirements this is the cake for them!

Wet ingredients

Carrot Cake Traybake

 Makes approx. 16 generous portions

Ingredients

175g light muscovado sugar

175ml sunflower or veg oil

3 large eggs , lightly beaten

150g grated carrots (about 3 medium)

150g raisins/sultanas

grated zest of 1 large orange

175g self-raising flour

Adding dry ingredients

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp grated nutmeg

175g icing sugar

enough orange juice to make a thick icing

160oC fan oven/180oC all other ovens

Method

1. Line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment. The easiest way to do this is to cut a long strip of parchment and lay it across the bottom and up the sides of the tin, it also makes the cake easier to lift out when its cooked.

Monster cake ready to bake!

2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs; mix until combined. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins/sultanas and orange rind.

3. To the wet ingredients add the flour, bicarb and spices. Mix until everything is combined - it'll be a very runny batter.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. It'll be quite a dark golden brown colour because of the muscavado sugar and spices.

5. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Baked, pre-icing

6. Make the icing and cover the top of the cake with it. Leave to set then cut into pieces. 

This cake is best enjoyed with a cup of tea (what cake isn't?!), it'll keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container, but it's better eaten sooner rather than later - its too easy and tasty not to give it a go!

Happy Baking!

Iced - before slicing

The Baking Ginger xx

Gingerbread Men

Decorated Men and Women!

For Christmas I got some Gingerbread Men cutters with bites out of them - they're really cute and I've been looking for an excuse to use them, and today myself and my friend Katie decided to do some baking, so out they came!

The Gingerbread recipe is really simple - you can taste the spices but they're not overpowering, so if you like your biscuits with a bit of a kick double the amount of spices in the recipe.

Gingerbread Men

Makes approx. 40 small men/women

Ingredients:

350g plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Dry ingredients + butter

2 tsp ground ginger
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of mixed spice
100g butter
150g light soft brown sugar
1 free-range egg
4 tbsp golden syrup

Writing icing to decorate – and anything else you fancy!

180oC oven, 170oC fan oven

Method:

Breadcrumbed mix

1.      Mix the flour, bicarb, ginger, cinnamon into a bowl. Add the butter and rub into breadcrumbs with your fingertips, then mix in the sugar.

2.      In a separate bowl mix the egg and golden syrup together and then add to the breadcrumbed mix.

3.      Form into a dough with your hands, wrap in clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. You might need to add a tiny splash of milk at this stage to make the dough come together.

Dough before rolling

4.      Once chilled roll the dough out on a floured surface to approx. 0.5cm thick, cut using whatever cutters you fancy, and move onto a greased and lined baking tray – leaving enough space between them to allow a slight spreading whilst they cook.

5.      Bake in the middle of your preheated oven for approx. 10 minutes, or until light golden brown.

6.      Cool on a wire rack until completely cold and then decorate with your writing pens.

These are a really fun thing to make - and really easy! They would make a good present too if you wanted to get creative and make a unique present for someone! Below are some of our best decorating efforts.

Dough with cutters

Happy Baking,

The Baking Ginger xx

Pre-decorating

Superman!

Posh frocks

Fig leaf