Not the lightest cake! The icing alone probably has more calories than a pizza, but it's really good, definitely worth it :-)Carrot cake with a cream cheese icing
For the cake:
250 g brown sugar (I used 180 g of light brown sugar and 70 g or dark brown sugar)
100 g olive oil
20 g sunflower oil
3 eggs
160 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
200 g grated carrots
30 g chopped walnuts
For the icing:
170 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225 g philadelphia
250 icing sugar
2 tbsp orange rind
A pinch of salt
To make the cake, mix together the oil (both) and the sugar (both) in a bowl with electric beaters for two minutes.
Add the eggs slowly, and then the sifted flour with the baking powder. Add the ginger, carrot and walnuts and mix well.
Grease the bottom of a 22cm round oven tin and cover with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 60 minutes.
To make the icing, beat the softened butter and the sugar in a bowl with the electric beaters until l it's soft and spongey (around 2 minutes). Add the philadelphia and beat for another two minutes. Add the sugar, the orange rind and the salt and beat for another three or four minutes.
Take the cake from the oven and let it cool down completely. Cut in half and fill with part of the icing. Assemble the two halves of the cake and decorate with the rest of the icing.
