Donning my Pinny

I absolutely support any excuse to eat cake.

This carrot cake recipe is INSANE. Probably the best carrot cake you will ever bake.

The secret ingredient? Pineapple. Yeh, pineapple.

I know, it sounds totally weird right?! But totally incredible. I promise.

Cake Ingredients

3 1/3 cups of all purpose flour

2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of salt

2 tsps of ground cinnamon

3 large eggs and 1 egg yolk

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 ¾ cups of vegetable oil

1 cup of drained crushed pineapple

2 tsps of vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups of grated carrots (this is plenty for the cake and the topping)

½ cup of sweetened shredded coconut

¼ cup raisons

¼ cup chopped walnuts (plus extra for topping)

*if you don’t own a set of measuring cups, Just use a standard size tea-cup and estimate. That’s what I do, it seems to work pretty well.

Icing Ingredients

1 tub of Philadelphia cream cheese

1/2cup of unsalted butter (leave this out to soften for a couple of hours)

2 cups of sifted icing sugar

2 tsps of Vanilla extract

Dash of lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Cake Method

Pre-heat your oven to about 180 degrees.

Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake tin (or if you own a fancy cake tin, you know the ones with the frilly edges, totally use that!).

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolk, and sugar until slightly thickened.

Add the oil, crushed pineapple and vanilla extract, whisk thoroughly.

Add the wet pineapple mixture, to the dry flour mixture and mix thoroughly.

Add the carrots, coconut, raisons and nuts.

Pour into the cake tine and bake for around 45 minutes (you may need to cover the top of the cake with baking paper, to prevent it from burning).

When baked, let the cake cool for 15 minutes before placing on a wire rack. Leave to completely cool.

Icing Method

Empty all the cream cheese into a bowl and beat until it is soft.

Add the butter and beat until thoroughly combined.

Add the salt, sugar, lemon juice and finally the vanilla extract and beat together until all the sugar has disappeared.

Spread immediately over the cooled cake.

Serve any time of day with a lovely cup of English breakfast tea or even better, a cup of fresh Columbian coffee, yum!