This carrot cake is adapted from the cake I made for Simba the Lion’s birthday a couple of years ago. As well as using lemon juice to sour the milk in this recipe I also added some orange juice to increase the range of flavours. Originally I was just going to make a showstopper Winnie the Pooh cake and iced buns this weekend but I took a carrot cake to work last weeka nd my children asked if they could make another one for them to eat. They really enjoyed the weighing and measuring and apparently it’s the nicest carrot cake ever!!!

For the cake:

300g light muscavado sugar
2 eggs – beaten
100ml whole milk
Juice of half a lemon
50ml of orange juice
300ml corn oil
300g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp baking powder
1tsp ground cinnamon
half tsp ground ginger
half tsp salt
half tsp vanilla extract
300g grated carrots
100g shelled walnuts – chopped
Pre-heat the oven to 170 c / 325 f and grease and line 2 x 20 cm tins

• Add the lemon juice to the milk to sour it. (Alternatively you could use buttermilk).
• Add the orange juice to the milk also.
• Place the sugar, eggs, soured milk, oil and vanilla extract in a free-standing mixer and beat to combine.
• In a separate bowl combine the flour, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and continue to beat until smooth.
• Add the grated carrots and chopped walnuts then stir by hand to distribute evenly.
• Pour into the two tins and level the mixture
• Place in the preheated oven for about 40 min or until a cake tester / knife comes out clean.
• Turn out onto racks to cool

For the cream cheese frosting

600g icing sugar
100g butter – softened
250g cream cheese – cold

• In a free-standing mixer beat the icing sugar and butter together until combined.
• Add the cream cheese and beat at a medium speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
  be careful not to over beat the frosting or the cream cheese will split and become runny.
• Use a palate knife to spread the frosting evenly and add extra chopped walnuts on top for decoration