A short while ago it was my dad’s 80th birthday. Of course, all the celebrations had to be cancelled – or rather put on hold. But we couldn’t ignore the occasion, so decided to make him his second-favourite cake, a carrot cake, to deliver to his doorstep. Why second favourite? Well, we’ll bake the favourite for when we properly celebrate once all this is over with. As has become a theme in our cooking sessions, Toby took control and this is how it went.
Ingredients – Cake
- Sunflower oil, 250ml
- Light brown sugar, 225g
- Eggs x 3
- Self-raising flour, 225g
- Salt, ½ teaspoon
- Ground cinnamon, 1 ½ teaspoons
- Vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon
- Grated carrots, 250g
- Chopped pecans, 100g
- Raisins, 75g
Ingredients – Cream Cheese Frosting*
- Butter, 230g
- Full fat cream cheese, 448g
- Icing sugar, 720g
- Vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon
*please note that we ended up with a lot of frosting – we over-estimated how much we’d need!
Method – Carrot Cake
- Heat the oven to 180C.
- Prepare two 8” sponge tins by greasing and lining.
- In a food processor, add the oil, sugar and vanilla – whisk until it is all combined.
- Into this wet mix, slowly add the three eggs.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, salt and cinnamon.
- Slowly add the bowl of dry ingredients to the egg/oil mix.
- Once the mixture is smooth, add in the carrots, pecans and raisins.
- Divide the cake mix equally between the two prepared tins.
- Bake in the oven for around 35-40 minutes. You’ll know when they are cooked when the tops spring back when pressed and when a cocktail stick into the centre comes out clean.
- Cool in the tins for 30 minutes.
- Turn out onto cooling racks, remove lining paper and leave to cool completely (otherwise the buttercream will melt).
Method – Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat the butter and cream cheese in a food mixer until it is soft and pale (3-4 minutes).
- Add the icing sugar a little at a time (beware the sugar cloud that will cover EVERYTHING! in the kitchen). Keep adding until it is all incorporated and smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract and continue mixing.
- If the frosting is too thick, loosen with a tiny amount of milk.
Method – Decorating
- Ensure you cake is totally cool.
- Add a small amount of frosting to the middle of your cake stand, to act as a glue to hold the base sponge down.
- Add a good layer of frosting to the top of the bottom layer. Don’t get too near the edge – when you push down the top layer the cream will squidge out a bit, to the edges.
- Place the top cake over the bottom layer and gently firm down.
- Add another generous layer of frosting to the top, and use a pallet knife to smooth it to the edges, and smooth the top.
- Toby wanted to use the icing bag, so we filled one up and he piped flowers around the edge.
- We bought some sugar craft carrots (ebay) as decoration. We first sprinkled a layer of ground almonds (the soil), and then planted the carrots into it.
- The addition of two candles and a paper banner (also from ebay), finished this easy but yummy cake.
Verdict
The carrot cake was really nice, apparently! It sure did smell good. However, the baking didn’t wholly go to plan. We followed the recipe to the plan, but after 40 minutes the cakes were nowhere near ready to come out of the oven. It took closer to an hour. But because we kept opening the oven to check, one of the cakes sank! Not disastrously … but it was just as well that buttercream can cover up any mistakes! Of course, it could be our oven (again) not actually heating to the temperature we set it to.
The frosting was super-easy to make and the basic decorating was really effective. I had planned ahead to make this, ordering the sugar craft carrots and banner in advance as it was for a special occasion. However, keeping some whole pecans back would be another way to easily decorate the top later.
If you liked this Cooking with the Kids recipe, there are others you can try with your children … like Traditional Apple Pie, Cheats Marmalade, Chocolate Brownie, and Hot Cross Buns.
