ANNATJIE’S CARROT CAKE
Cake:
400 g white sugar
180 ml oil (sunflower / vegetable / canola / rice bran)
3 eggs
5 ml vanilla extract
180 ml buttermilk
220 g finely grated carrots
75 g desiccated coconut
1 can (about 430 g) crushed pineapples, drained
250 gr cake flour
10 g bicarbonate of soda
5 g cinnamon (optional – I leave it out because my husband does not like cinnamon)
10 g salt
120 g chopped walnuts (optional – I leave it out because my husband does not like nuts in things)
Icing:
115 g butter
1 block cream cheese (250g)
5 ml vanilla extract
500 g sifted icing sugar
Cake:
Preheat oven to 175° C.
Grease a Bundt cake tin and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla and buttermilk.
Stir in the carrots, coconut, vanilla and pinapple.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt.
Gently stir the flour mixture into the carrot mixture. Stir in the chopped nuts if using.
Pour into prepared cake tin.
Bake for approximately 45 – 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing:
In a medium mixing bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar. Blend until creamy.
Frost and decorate to your heart’s desire.
I use a little bit of the icing to colour orange and green to pipe little carrots onto the top.
Recipe and photo: Annatjie Heydenrych
