This carrot and courgette cake is a winner: we’ve added other flavours to a classic carrot cake, such as honey, courgette, pine nuts and rum, to give this recipe an edge. Top with edible flowers for an extra decadent look.
- Why carrots? They’ve been used in baking for hundreds of years because of their natural sweetness, but it was in the United States in the 1960s that carrot cake, as we know and love it, came into being.
- Why does the recipe use oil, not butter? It’s a US thing. American cooks tend to use vegetable oil and shortening instead of butter when they’re baking. You can use butter instead, if you prefer, but oil gives the cake its characteristic texture and helps to keep it moist.
- Essential step. It’s important to beat the eggs, sugar and oil well before adding any other ingredients to the mix. This process helps to suspend the oil in an emulsion, which stops the cake becoming greasy when it’s baked.
Discover our best-ever traditional carrot cake recipe.
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Ingredients
- Butter for greasing
- 4 medium free-range eggs
- 225ml sunflower oil
- 175g soft light brown sugar
- 3 tbsp runny honey
- 2½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 300g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 50ml rum
- 50g pine nuts, toasted, plus extra to serve
- 275g (about 2 large) carrots, roughly grated
- 1 small (about 75g) courgette, roughly grated
For the icing
- 400g cream cheese
- 170ml double cream
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lime, plus extra zest to serve
- 75g icing sugar
For the sugared petals
- Large handful of edible petals (such as unsprayed roses and violas)
- 1 large egg white, lightly whisked
- Caster sugar to dust
You’ll also need
- 2 x 20cm sandwich tins
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Method
- Heat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Grease the sandwich tins with butter and line with baking paper. Put the eggs, oil, sugar and honey in a bowl and whisk with an electric hand whisk for 4-5 minutes until the mixture becomes creamy.
- Sift together the cinnamon, flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, then fold gradually into the mixture. Gently fold in the rum, pine nuts, carrot and courgette.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the sponges comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the icing, beat the cream cheese and cream until smooth, then beat in the lime zest and juice and the icing sugar until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add more icing sugar to taste, if necessary.
- Make the sugared petals by brushing the petals with egg white and dusting with caster sugar (see video in tips). Set aside until hardened.
- To assemble, place one of the sponges top-down on a plate and spread the surface generously with one-third of the icing.
- Top with the other cake and cover the top with the remaining icing. Sprinkle with pine nuts, lime zest and the sugared petals before serving.
Nutrition
- 709kcals Calories
- 51.6g (20.8g saturated) Fat
- 8.6g Protein
- 50.4g (30g sugars) Carbs
- 1g Salt
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