Carrot loaf
A moist carrot loaf made with banana, warming spices and a mix of nuts. Add cream cheese icing for good measure.
Ingredients
For the loaf
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 150 g light muscovado sugar
- 50 g walnuts roughly chopped
- 50 g pecans roughly chopped
- 100 g grated carrots
- 2 ripe bananas mashed
- 2 medium eggs
- 150 ml sunflower oil
- 1 orange zested
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice or nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch fine sea salt
For the icing
- 90 g full-fat soft cheese I like Philadelphia
- 60 g butter softened
- 100 g icing sugar sifted
- 25 ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- Pinch fine sea salt
Instructions
To make the loaf
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 2L loaf tin with baking parchment, then set aside.
- Beat the sugar and eggs with an electric whisk until pale and creamy, then add in the sunflower oil and vanilla extract and beat again until incorporated.
- Grate in the orange zest, then add the mashed banana, grated carrots, both the pecan and walnuts. Using a rubber spatula, scrape around the sides of the bowl and mix everything to combine.
- Sift the flour, baking power, pinch of salt and spices into a separate bowl and combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in thirds, mixing after each addition until everything is entirely combined.
- Pour into your prepared loaf tin, level the surface with the back of your spatula and bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes until the cake is well risen.N.B. Insert a wooden skewer to test if it’s ready; if it comes out clean you know it’s good to go. If it’s still wet inside, leave it longer in the oven. You can also place silver foil on top of the cake to prevent the top from burning at all if it needs longer in the oven but top is browning too quickly.
- Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing
- To make the icing, use an electric whisk to beat the butter until soft, creamy and pale in colour. This should take a few minutes.
- Add the 25ml of double cream, a pinch of salt and vanilla extract, whisking until just combined.
- Sift in the icing sugar and beat again until you have a smooth icing with no lumps.
- Add the cream cheese (cold from the fridge), and fold in with a rubber spatula, scraping down the sides as you go. This will help avoid your icing “loosening”.
- Place it in the fridge for at least half an hour to firm up slightly.
- Once the loaf has cooled completely, you can either ice the entire loaf in one go or I like to take individual slices and add a dollop of icing to the slice to serve immediately.