Carrot Cake - Counts as 1 out of 5

I haven't had carrot cake in a long time and after Mr T finished the last of the fruit cake, I thought a more healthy option (if that is possible) was in order to satisfy his sweet tooth. I used to make this cake when I lived in Germany and I never told people what it was and it went down a treat. The carrots give the cake its juiciness while the walnuts add a great texture to it. You can leave the topping off, I think it is also nice with just a dusting of icing sugar..... If you want to take this cake a bit further, you could add the zest of an orange to cake and icing as orange and carrot are perfect partners.

Carrot cake

• 185g unsalted butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 50g chopped walnuts
• 200g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1tsp cinnamon

• 100g cream cheese
• 50g softened unsalted butter
• 200g icing sugar

Pre-heat oven to 160c. Cream the butter & sugar together (make sure it is really creamy). Add the eggs, one by one, mixing well between each egg. This is best done with an electric mixer. Add the sieved flour, cinnamon & baking powder and using a wooden spoon, stir into the mixture. Now add the carrots & walnuts. Mix well with the wooden spoon.

Fill the mix into a well buttered or lined baking dish (traditionally a loaf tin is used but here I used a 18cm round tin) and bake for about an hour.

When baked, remove cake from the tin and leave to cool on a wired rack.

Mix together all ingredients for the topping and spread over the cooled cake.

For decoration colour marzipan orange and form little carrots and arrange on topping.