Cake Five: Sour Cream Carrot Cake (~jinghan)

And I could not leave you without giving you the recipe that was the first non-packet cake that I made in about week 8 of this semester. It changed my life, and my lifted my defeated spirits during that mid-semester hump, it’s a really easy cake that is simple but delicious and doesn’t even make you feel guilty. So if you ever need an excuse to get away from your desk: shopping for carrots, lemons and nutmeg.

And if you are ever feeling bogged down in the middle of swotvac with a truckload of work to get through before an exam, here is the ultimate sound track to help you get through it:

• Stay Home
• I’m A Believer
• Like Wow!
• It is You (I Have Loved)
• Best Years Of Our Lives
• Bad Reputation
• My Beloved Monster
• You Belong To Me
• All Star
• Hallelujah
• I’m On My Way
• True Love’s First Kiss

(I was unable to trace the source of this recipe, a friend gave me a hand written copy. I think it may have been from a magazine.)

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup SR flour
• ½ cup plain flour
• ½ tsp bicarb soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1½ cups grated carrot (~2 large carrots)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ cup sour cream

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 60g packaged cream cheese, softened
• 30g soft butter
• 1 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1½ cups icing sugar

Method:

Grease a 20cm ring pan, line base with paper; grease paper. Sift flours, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into bowl; stir in sugar and carrot. Combine oil, eggs and sour cream; stir into flour mixture. Pour mixture into prepared pan, bake in moderately slow oven for ≈50mins. (140˚C fan force, 160˚C conventional) Turn onto sire rack to cool. When cold, spread w frosting, decorate with walnut halves.

Cream Cheese Frosting :

Beat cream cheese, butter and lemon rind in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, gradually beat in sifted icing sugar; beat until combined. (keeping time: 4days)

Jinghan Says:

This cake is just as nice with some icing sugar, or vanilla dusting sugar dusted over it, if you can’t be bothered making the cream cheese frosting. (I still have half a tub of left over cream cheese left in my fridge…)