Carrot Cake

[Karen2005]

I made carrot cake for the first time the other day and was almost put off when my recipe called for sunflower oil (and quite a lot of it!). I've since checked other recipes and they do tend to be made with oil rather than butter.

Why is this? I guess fat is fat at the end of the day, but the oil/sugar mixture didn't look very appealing and I didn't lick the spoon like I normally do when I bake a cake!

[squirtle]

Hi karen

I made some carrot cake myself a while ago, can't remember the internet site (i will look in a while), but i didn't use any oil, it was indeed butter eggs flour sugar grated carrot orange rind, not exactly sure on quantities. It was pretty delicious though.

[shaneystar2]

There is one with no oil

5 eggs, separated

225g brown sugar

juice and grated rind of 1/2 lemon

275g ground almonds

250g carrots, peeled and grated

60g gluten free flour, sifted ..or rice flour or common or garden flour .

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4

Grease and line a 9" square cake tin. Beat together the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy. Fold in the lemon juice and zest, ground almonds, carrots, flour and baking powder. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold into the mixture . Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes, put on a rack.. leave to cool.
You can drizzle it with thin lemon icing made with 100g sifted icing sugar, the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon or so of water. Or make a cream cheese frosting on the top ...or cut it half and put the cream cheese in the middle .

[Karen2005]

Thanks both of you. The recipe I tried is pretty delicious, but I'll try Shaneystar's one too!

[squirtle]

Sorry karen but i just can't find the recipe i used . But shaneystar2s sounds like it is very similar.

[Ed Strong]

Here's a recipe from the BBC site for Carrot & Olive Oil cake:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/car rotandoliveoilcak_72871.shtml
Haven't tried it, but looks delicious with the variation of nuts in the recipe.