I recently hosted a friend’s baby shower which was lots of fun. She had mentioned she liked carrot cake and I had never made one before so gave it a go. It was really delicious, moist and sweet with a nutty walnut crunch. The recipe was adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook.
In this scene: Peach cake stand, DIY fringe cake topper (how-to below)
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
300g brown sugar
3 eggs
150ml olive oil
150g butter, melted
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g carrots, grated
100g walnuts, chopped
Cream cheese frosting
450g icing sugar, sifted
75g butter, softened
190g cream cheese, cold
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Preheat oven to 170°C (conventional). Grease and line 2 x 20cm round cake tins with baking paper. Place the sugar, eggs, oil and butter in electric mixer and beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla and beat until well combined. Fold through the carrot and walnuts. Pour into prepared tins and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden and the cake bounces back when touched. Allow to cool in the tins. Spread a cooled cake with half the frosting. Top with the other cake and spread this with frosting.
To make the cream cheese frosting, beat the icing sugar and butter together in an electric mixer on medium until well combined. Add the cream cheese and lemon and beat until completely incorporated. Increase the speed and beat for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
Serves 12
DIY fringe cake topper
To make the sweet cake topper all you need is:
2 x wooden skewers
2 x 15cm lengths tissue garland
superglue
Place a dot of glue at each end of one of the tissue garlands and attach to the tops of both skewers. Repeat with remaining garland and stick to the other side of the skewers. Allow to set somewhere flat.
Keep an eye out as I will be posting more recipes from the baby shower very soon!
