The BEST Carrot Cake

The BEST & ONLY Carrot Cake recipe you’ll ever need. Originally from restaurant in South Africa, although heavily debated which one, and voted the NUMBER ONE Carrot Cake in all of Australia. The secret is in the glaze you brush on halfway through baking. Heaven! This cake is guaranteed to be the star of the show wherever you serve it.

PS – the recipe is easily halved for a smaller crowd and then bake it in a loaf pan.

Recipe:

• 3 cups/375g all-purpose flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 ½ tsp baking soda

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

• ½ tsp ground nutmeg

• ½ tsp allspice

• 2 tsp salt

• 13/4 cups/345g castor (superfine) sugar

• 11/2 cups/375ml vegetable oil

• 4 eggs

• 3 medium carrots, grated

• 220g tin crushed pineapple, drained

• 200g pecans, chopped

Glaze:

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 110g brown sugar

• 2 tbsp milk

Icing:

• 250g cream cheese, room temperature, cut into cubes

• 125g unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into cubes

• 500g icing sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180C (160C fan). Grease a 9”/23cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.
Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and oil, then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well then add the carrots, crushed pineapple and pecans. Mix to form a smooth batter and pour into the cake tin.

Bake for 30 minutes. Prepare the glaze by placing all the ingredients for it in a small saucepan and heating over medium heat, stirring, until all the ingredients are combined.
Pull the cake out on the oven rack and carefully pour the glaze over the cake.Return the cake to the oven and
bake for about 40 minutes or until a bamboo skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. The glaze will have melted onto the tin, so take a butter knife or metal spatula and run it carefully around the inside of the pan and remove the cake.

Cool on the wire rack. Prepare the frosting by whipping the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl. Put the cake, bottom side down, on a serving plate and cover the top of the cake with frosting. Sprinkle with additional chopped pecans. Allow to set for several hours before serving.