Paul Hollywood’s Ultimate Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• 155 ml sunflower oil (plus extra for greasing)
• 230 g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 0.5 tsp mixed spice
• 0.5 tsp ground ginger
• 230 g light brown muscovado sugar
• 1 satsuma or mandarin zest (finely grated; plus strips to decorate)
• 100 g pecans (halved)
• 260 g carrots (coarsely grated)
• 3 free-range eggs (medium, beaten)
• 50 g butter (softened)
• 200 g full-fat cream cheese (Philadelphia recommended)
• 100 g icing sugar (plus extra to dust)
• 1 orange zest (finely grated)
• 2 oranges (for the peel)
• 200 ml water
• 200 g caster sugar

Steps

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4.

2. 2

   Grease an 18cm loose-bottomed round cake tin with sunflower oil and line the base with baking paper.

3. 3

   Sift the self-raising flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, mixed spice, and ground ginger into a large bowl.

4. 4

   Add the light brown muscovado sugar, satsuma/mandarin zest, halved pecans, and grated carrots to the bowl, then stir until well combined.

5. 5

   Stir in the beaten eggs and sunflower oil, then mix well until a uniform batter forms.

6. 6

   Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. 7

   Transfer the tin to a cooling rack and leave the cake in the tin for 5 minutes.

8. 8

   Turn the cake out onto the rack and leave to cool completely before icing.

9. 9

   To make the icing, beat the softened butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer until really soft.

10. 10

    Add the cream cheese and beat again until well mixed.

11. 11

    Sift over the icing sugar, add the orange zest, then beat until smooth. Store, covered, in the fridge until needed.

12. 12

    For the candied orange peel, carefully pare the zest from the 2 oranges into strips.

13. 13

    Put the water and caster sugar in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has completely dissolved.

14. 14

    Add the orange zest strips to the syrup and remove from the heat.

15. 15

    Let the zest sit in the sugar syrup until it has completely cooled.

16. 16

    Carefully cut the cooled cake in half horizontally.

17. 17

    Spread half of the cream cheese icing between the cake layers.

18. 18

    Spread the remaining icing on top of the cake.

19. 19

    Decorate with the cooled orange zest strips and a light dusting of icing sugar if desired.

Notes

Top tip for oil-based cakes: whisk your eggs with about 2 tbsp of the sugar until thick and creamy (forming soft peaks), then slowly whisk in the oil before folding into the dry ingredients to ensure a non-greasy texture. You can substitute pecans with sultanas if preferred.

Nutrition per serving

• dessert
• cake
• baked
• carrot cake
• cream cheese frosting
• afternoon tea
• British