Carrot & Zucchini Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Ahhh, the classic carrot cake - who doesn’t love it?!  It’s the perfect balance of sweet and spice, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee or tea and absolutely MUST be smothered in cream cheese frosting - otherwise, can it really be called a Carrot Cake?   

In this recipe, I’ve gone a little rogue and added zucchini…….so technically it’s a Carrot & Zucchini Cake.  Before you go, ewww yuck, please bear with me.  The zucchini adds a wonderful moistness to the cake that you don’t get with carrot alone, but no zucchini flavour, and if the cake has extra vegetables does that make it healthy? Win, win.

Give it a go, you wont be sorry!

 

Mel xoxo

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Carrot & Zucchini Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

makes 1 cake

 

Ingredients

 

200g soft brown sugar

180ml olive oil

4 eggs

2 large carrots, grated

1 zucchini, grated

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

50g walnuts, roughly chopped

75g sultanas

 

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

250g cream cheese, softened

50g unsalted butter, softened

80g pure icing sugar, sifted

juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

 

Garnish

Ground nutmeg and cinnamon

 

Method

 

Preheat oven to 180C and line a 23cm round springform tin with baking paper. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and olive oil until smooth then add the eggs and whisk until well combined.  Fold through the carrot and zucchini.  Sift over the flour, baking powder, bicarb and spices and fold through.  Lastly, fold through the walnuts and sultanas.  Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until the centre of the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre.  Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 15 mins before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, place the cream cheese in a stand mixer bowl and mix on medium-high speed until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and continue beating on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy.

Once the cake is completely cooled, spread the frosting over the cake and finish with a sprinkle of ground nutmeg and cinnamon.  

Any uneaten cake (what? as if!) should be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

 

 
Mel Amos