Everything has an interesting story behind it, even the simple homemade carrot cake.
Carrot cake first appeared during World War II in Great Britain, where “housewives” were forced to use natural sweet products to sweeten their cakes due to the lack of available sugar. In 1943 the British War Ministry of Food published the first-known recipe for carrot cake.
Obviously the prototypes were more simple fare lacking the richness of today’s carrot cake, which contains amongst other things brown sugar, honey, walnuts, cinnamon and of course grated carrots.
The carrot cake became more popular in the 1970s when it started to appear in ‘hippie’ whole-food recipe cookbooks like the Moosewood Cookbook. In its fancier versions it comes topped with cream cheese and lemon zest icing, frosting or marzipan.
This version is one from my days at pastry school and is a standard offered by hotels around the world to accompany morning and afternoon tea events.
It’s simple, quick to make and tasty in both cake and muffin form.
Carrot cake
Ingredients (makes two English cake moulds):
- 420 g all-purpose flour
- 400 g grated carrot
- Pinch salt
- 25 g baking powder
- 120 g roughly chopped walnuts
- 16 g cinnamon
- 60 g pourable honey
- 4 eggs
- 200 g brown sugar
- 200 g white sugar
- 230 g canola oil
Method:
Add to a large bowl flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and mix well. Add the carrot, walnut, honey and continue mixing until well mixed. Set aside.
Add eggs and sugar to mixer using balloon attachment on a higher speed. Start whisking and add oil in a strong drizzle. Once all the oil has been absorbed continue to whisk for a few minutes.
Fold the flour-carrot mixture gently into the wet mixture of eggs, oil and sugar. Once well mixed, pour into the English cake forms. If using an old tin form, you will have to line the bottom with baking paper to ensure it doesn’t stick; if using one-time-use English cake moulds, there’s no need for the baking paper.
Pre-heat the oven to 170 C and bake for approximately 40 minutes. Check with a wooden toothpick or gently press the palm of your hand on the top of the cake to ensure it is slightly firm and well baked.
Cream cheese and lemon icing
Ingredients:
- Philadelphia Cream Cheese (full fat)
- Zest of one lemon
- 3-4 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
Place everything into a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Once cakes have completely cooled, apply the icing using a small spatula and cover the top of the cake well. Serve with edible flowers if you want it fancy, or chopped walnuts or plain – or without icing if you want less calories.
It’s a sad week for all us Commonwealth folk as we mourn, remember and pay last respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving queen in English history. The Queen is dead, long live the King!!
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