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Carrot cake

Carrot cake is a classic. Carrots were originally added to cakes to sweeten them when sugar was rare and expensive. Despite sugar being readily available today, carrot cake remains universally popular, the carrots adding not just sweetness but moisture and a lightly resistant texture. Here are three different types of carrot cake. This first one is cooked in a loaf tin where the cream-cheese icing has just a hint of orange. Then there are some cupcakes, which are infused with ginger – both ground and crystallised. These are followed by a layer cake, where the icing is laden with the caramel flavour of dulce de leche.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Baking time:1 hour–1 hour 15 minutes

Ready in: 2 hours

Serves: 8–10

2 eggs

150ml (5fl oz) sunflower or vegetable oil

200g (7oz) soft light brown sugar

300g (11oz) peeled and grated carrots (weight when grated)

75g (3oz) pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

175g (6oz) self-raising flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

Pinch of salt

For the icing

100g (3½oz) cream cheese

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

200g (7oz) icing sugar, sifted

900g (2lb) loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F), Gas mark 2, and line the base and sides of the loaf tin with baking parchment, with the paper coming above the sides of the tin to enable the cake to be lifted out easily.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl to break them up, then whisk in the oil, sugar, grated carrots and chopped nuts. Sift in the remaining ingredients and bring the mixture together using a wooden or large metal spoon.

Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, smoothing the surface with a palette knife, and bake in the oven for between 1 hour and 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes, then carefully lift the cake out of the tin with the lining paper. Peel away the baking parchment and place on a wire rack to cool down fully before you ice it.

While the cake is cooling, make the icing. Beat all the ingredients together, then use a palette knife to spread evenly over the cake.

Tip Try to use a serrated knife to cut this cake into slices, as it is dense but quite crumbly.