Carrot Cake

This picture probably doesn't do it justice, but this is the easiest, tastiest carrot cake recipe ever. Its an american recipe, so uses cups, always a good thing in my book, no measuring! It also uses oil instead of butter, so the finished cake is moist and lasts for ages. You can have it as is, or add a little orange zest and juice, chopped walnuts, raisins. My friend (possibly the best cake maker I know) found this recipe a few years ago and since then I don't think we've veered from it. Everybody loves it and wants the recipe, but so far, I've managed to resist giving it, until now...

I've been a bit vague with the amount of carrots, but I can never be bothered to grate and measure 3 cups of carrots, so I usually grate roughly 3 medium carrots. The whole point is to use a cheap ingredient (carrot) to bulk the cake out, so it won't matter if you veer slightly with quantities.

I also had a bit of a disaster with the icing, hence the runny look. I usually just beat a small tub of cream cheese with a couple of tbsps of sifted icing sugar and maybe a squeeze of lime juice. This time I used orange juice instead (I used the zest in the cake), who knows, maybe I used too much juice, so beware!

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
2 cups plain flour ( a mix of wholewheat and white is nice)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
3 medium carrots, grated

This couldn't be simpler, mix all the ingredients except the carrots in a bowl, add the carrots et voila! This makes enough for a generous sandwich cake or works well as muffins. I've also made it in a large rectangle tin and spread icing on top to make cake slabs.

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