Possibly... The Best Carrot Cake Ever

This is not my opinion, but that of a work colleague.  He loves his carrot cake & was very vocal in his praise of my most recent baking offering.  That's praise indeed as far as I'm concerned!  This cake works really well as either a classic two layer 9-inch round cake or a large traybake and is very moist - no crumbly dry cake here.  I don't like dried fruit in Carrot Cake, so I didn't use any.  If you are partial to some plump sultanas, feel free to throw some into the mix.  I made a very thin lemon cream cheese icing for the top because I wanted the cake to be the star of the show, but I know this would be fantastic with a really thick buttercream or cream cheese frosting piped onto the top.

This is also an all-in-one method, so you've only one bowl to wash up afterwards - always a bonus!

Possibly... The Best Carrot Cake Ever

350ml Vegetable Oil
6 Eggs
350g Soft Brown Sugar
280g Carrots, finely grated
Finely grated zest of 2 Oranges
350g Self-Raising Flour
1 tbsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tbsp Mixed Spice (or half each of Ginger & Cinnamon)
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
100g Chopped Walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180c / Gas Mark 4.  Line the base of your baking tins with baking paper.

Put the eggs, oil, carrots, sugar & orange zest into a large bowl & mix with a wooden spoon (I used my trusty Kenwood Chef & K-Beater attachment).

Add the dry ingredients into the mixture and mix until lightly combined - mix it too much & it will go tough which is not what you want.  It will look really sloppy at this stage, but that's absolutely perfect.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin(s) & bake for 30 minutes.  If the sponge springs back & a skewer comes out clean, then the cake is ready.  If not, give it another 5-7 minutes & check again.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack & removing the lining paper on the base.

At this stage, you can eat the cake exactly as it is or you can ice it with a buttercream or cream cheese frosting.  Do whatever you like - it will taste gorgeous no matter what!