Spiced Pumpkin & Carrot Cake
I have always been a huge fan of dense moist cakes – it’s the country girl coming out in me. Picnic cakes, school fair cakes, cake to feed the shearers or contractors all interest me.
To achieve maximum moistness it doesn’t bother me if a cake sinks slightly in the middle. After all there are many ways you can disguise that if need be.
Cakes with great flavour don’t even need to be iced although I often can’t resist a dusting of icing sugar.
I love a good recipe for any flavour of loaf, they slice so beautifully and recipes for crispy, buttery biscuits.
Let’s bake memories one recipe at a time.
Makes 1 x 20cm round cake
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, plus extra for dusting
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¾ cups caster sugar
1 cup raisins
½ cup local walnuts, roughly chopped
1 cup sunflower oil
½ cup water
4 free-range eggs
1 ¼ cups mashed and cooled pumpkin
1 cup grated carrot
Icing
100g butter, softened
3 cups icing sugar
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line the base and sides of a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Stir in the sugar, raisins and walnuts.
In a large jug, lightly beat together the oil, water, eggs, mashed pumpkin and grated carrot. Pour into the flour mixture and mix gently until all the ingredients are combined.
Pour into the prepared tin and place in the oven. Bake for 1 ½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Make the icing, beat together all the ingredients until light and fluffy. Spread on to the cooled cake and dust with extra cinnamon.
Do ahead – cook and mash the pumpkin. You will need about 300g pumpkin. Peel and remove seeds and cut into even-sized pieces before cooking. Steam pumpkin or cook in just enough water to cover. Drain and dry off over residual heat.
Tips:
It is preferable to use high-grade flour in cakes that have a dense crumb.
You can omit the walnuts.
Cake will store well in an airtight container.
Cake can be made in a 23cm tin but adjust the cooking time accordingly.
Keep some cooked and mashed pumpkin in the freezer. Defrost and bring to room temperature before using.
You could ice cake with a traditional cream cheese icing flavoured with finely grated lemon zest.