Chelsea Sugar’s Best Ever Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is a delicious winter cake. It’s a great way to use up those extra carrots (while they’re cheap and plentiful) and get some warmly sweet spiced cake into lunchboxes or afternoon tea. My inspiration for the recipe is this Best Ever Carrot Cake which I’ve amended to add in some different micro-nutrients; also, swapping from nuts to seeds makes it suitable for childcare and schools with no-nut policies.

Delicious carrot cake with seeds and ancient grains.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• pinch Allspice
• 3/4 cup brown sugar or raw coconut sugar
• 200g grated carrot
• ½ cup sultanas or raisins
• 2 tsp ground chia seeds
• 3 – 4 Tbsp Hubbards Seeds and Ancient Grains Toppers
  • or, a mix (as desired) of coconut thread, linseed, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, buckwheat, puffed quinoa.
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup rice bran oil or canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Allergies: dairy free, soy free, nut free.

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C bake (160°C fan-forced). Grease a 23cm cake tin (6cm deep) and line with baking paper.
2. Sift all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
3. Add carrot, sultanas, ground chia seeds, and coconut + seed mix and stir until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, oil and vanilla.
5. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
6. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until cooked (when a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean). Remove from oven, cool for 10 minutes then remove from the cake tin and peel away the paper.
7. Optional: make cream cheese icing to decorate.

Cream Cheese Icing

• 50g butter, softened
• 125g cream cheese, chopped
• 1½ cups Icing Sugar

Cream Cheese Icing
Beat butter and cream cheese together until combined. Stir in Chelsea Icing Sugar, then beat mixture on high speed until light and fluffy.