Name: Carrot cake
Prep time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 15 slices
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 175g light muscovado sugar; 175ml sunflower oil; 3 large eggs lightly beaten; 140g grated carrot (about 3 medium); 100g raisins; 1 large orange zested; 175g self-raising flour; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; ½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour); 175g icing sugar; 1½-2 tbsp orange juice

Carrot cake

Delight friends with an afternoon tea that includes this easy carrot cake. You can bake the cake, freeze it and just drizzle over the icing on the day

1 hr 15 min total 1 hr 15 min prep 15 slices 279 cal

Instructions

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1 Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
2 Tip the sugar, sunflower oil and eggs into a big mixing bowl. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the carrots, raisins and orange zest.
3 Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into the bowl. Mix everything together, the mixture will be soft and almost runny.
4 Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 mins or until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre.
5 Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point if you want to serve it at a later date.)
6 Beat the icing sugar and orange juice in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Put the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.