Boardgames & Baking: Carrot Cake

It's very yellow.

Baking a carrot cake was one of my first ideas when I turned my attention from fancy cakes to a more sponge cake variations. I found a great recipe on the internet, tried it and it was good... Sure, but it could be better. I baked another soon enough and added more carrot to it, as I found the original cake lacking the taste of the carrot. The second take on the carrot cake was a success, the taste of the carrot was there and still it complemented the sweetness of the cake without tasting too alien.

I baked it again this Monday using whatever I could find in the underequpied kitchen I can work in now. But it eventually turned out great, even though I didn't use a standard cake pan but a quiche dish. It took me a bit longer to bake it but I suppose that was because the oven, which by the way I used for the first time in my life, was a gas oven and there's no telling what temperature is what gas mark. Anyway, here's the recipe.

Carrot Cake

4 eggs

300 ml vegetable oil

400 g white sugar (or 200 g of white and 200 of brown sugar to give it a darker colour)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

250 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

5 teaspoons of ground cinnamon (use between 3 to 5 depending on your preference, personally, I use more than 3)

3 large grated carrots (use 2 if you want a blander carrot taste)

100 g chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C, or gas mark 4. Prepare (grease and flour) a medium sized cake pan.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan, serve lightly dusted in confectioners' sugar.

Alternatively, you can prepare frosting for your cake. It goes very well with strawberry / cream cheese frosting.