Carrot & poppyseed cake and re-discovering

A friend requested I make a carrot cake a while ago and I said I would oblige. I hadn’t even considered posting a carrot cake, because I would never usually choose to eat carrot cake. I was chatting to mother dearest about it and she reminded me of a recipe that she hasn’t cooked in years. And I didn’t realise how much I had missed it!

This mixture is beautiful. It is moist and crunchy and dense and delicious. Have I convinced you to make it yet? I haven’t even started describing the velvety cream cheese icing.

This cake will not be relegated to the back of the recipes book; it is too good to be forgotten again!

Cake:

¼ cup poppy seeds
2 tbsp milk
180g butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 tbsp orange rind
3 eggs
1 ½ cups grated carrot
1 cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour

Icing:

60g butter
125g cream cheese
3 cups icing sugar
1 tspn vanilla

Preheat your oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Pour your poppy seeds into a small bowl and add in the milk. Mix them around so that they combine and set them to one side.

Cream the butter and sugars until they’re light and fluffy. Add in the orange rind, then the eggs, one at a time and continue mixing.

Grate up your carrots (it took me about 4 medium-sized carrots) and add them to the mixture. Add in both flours and the poppy seeds and combine. The carrots should provide plenty of moisture to the cake as it bakes, so don’t worry if the batter is looking a little thick at this point. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is mixed well and then pop the mixture into your cake tin.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack.

While the cake cools, whip the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar together. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time to make mixing more manageable. Add the vanilla and set it to one side. Ice the cake when it is completely cooled to avoid the icing sliding off! Slather the icing on nice and thick, it is gorgeous!

Serve with some whipped cream for extra indulgence. I justify the addition of cream with the fact that this cake gives me a whole lot of goodness in the form of carrot and poppy seeds.