Perfectly Piped Carrot Cake
Recipes

Perfectly Piped Carrot Cake

Tier up a triple-decker cake of carroty loveliness then top it with perfectly piped peaks of cream cheese icing, courtesy...

Ingredients

For the cake

  • 350g carrots, grated 
  • 360g soft brown sugar 
  • 150g walnuts, chopped 
  • 440g plain wholemeal flour 
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
  • 2 tsp cinnamon 
  • 360ml groundnut oil 
  • 4 medium eggs, beaten 

For the cream cheese icing

  • 175g unsalted butter, softened 
  • 175g icing sugar, sieved 
  • 340g full-fat cream cheese 

To decorate

  • zest of 1 orange 

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 150˚C/Gas 2. Grease three 20cm loose-based sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Add the grated carrots and walnuts to a large bowl, sift in the sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon and mix together. Lightly whisk together the oil and eggs in a jug, add to the bowl and stir until well and truly combined.
  2. Divide the mix between the three tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until the cakes are well-risen and just beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Leave to cool in the tins on a wire rack for 5 minutes before turning out and removing the baking parchment.
  3. To make the icing, beat the butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer until soft, pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar and beat until well combined, then STIR through the cream cheese until thoroughly mixed.
  4. When the cakes are completely cold, add the cream cheese icing to a Get A Grip Piping Bag fitted with a large round nozzle (we used the one from our Professional Piping Set). Pipe the icing carefully onto the bottom layer and place the middle layer on top. Repeat with the middle and top layers. Carefully pipe the remaining icing onto the top of your cake and sprinkle over the orange zest.