Have a go at this delicious carrot cake with a difference from Matthew Street at the Eastbury Hotel. If you try this recipe, make sure to tag us in your Instagram photos and on Twitter and Facebook!
Ingredients
250g Dark Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
225ml Rosemary Infused oil
250g Self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
250g grated Carrot
1 Orange
75g icing sugar
300g Soft Cheese
Rosemary infused oil –
If you cannot buy this then just make it yourself with some good quality olive oil, gently warm 100g of fresh Rosemary in a pan with 500ml of olive oil, if you have it add 1-2 drops of Rosemary essential oil. Leave this for 1-2 hours to take on the flavour and cool. This will keep for at least a month at ambient temperature or even 6 months if stored refrigerated.
You can find the majority of these ingredients from local producers. Click here to visit our food section where you can find locally produced cheeses, spices and more.
Method
- • Heat the oven to 160C, Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
- • Tip 250g light muscovado sugar, 225g Rosemary infused oil and 4 large beaten eggs into a big mixing bowl, lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in 250g grated carrots, pinch of salt and grated zest of 1 large orange.
- • Sift 250g self-raising flour, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of mixed spice into the bowl. Mix everything together, the mixture will be soft and almost runny.
- • 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.
- • 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.)
- • Beat 75 icing sugar and 1½ – 2 tbsp orange juice in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream, then add this to 300g of soft cheese.
- • Put the cake on a serving plate and spread over the cream cheese mixture, decorating however you wish, chopped walnuts, orange zest or Rosemary flowers if you can get them.
