Carrot Cake

This is the best carrot cake you will ever eat.

Ingredients:

4 eggs,

3oo ml vegetable oil

400g – 14 oz caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250g – 9 oz plain flour

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

350g – 12 oz grated carrots (Squeeze out excess water, and place between two pieces of kitchen paper to dry out for about 10 minutes)

12z g – 4.5 oz chopped walnuts

Topping

125g – 4.5 oz soft unsalted butter

200g – 7.5 oz tub of cream cheese

450g – 1lb Icing sugar

Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Walnuts to decorate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c – 350f- Gas mark 4. Grease the tins and line with baking paper. There are two options here. Either use 2 round baking tins about 23 x 33 cm, and once baked sandwich both cakes together with the frosting, and put the remainder on top. Alternatively, use 1 large round baking tin, about 400 x 300 mm, and just use the frosting on the top when cooked. Your choice.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract. Then add all the other ingredients and mix well.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Place onto a baking rack and leave to cool in the tin.

To make the topping, mix together the butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth then spread on the top of the cake. Add walnuts to decorate.