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Semi-naked Easter cake

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Our carrot cake will be the star of the show this year! You don’t require the skills of a master baker either.

Easy/Prepare ahead/Freeze (sponges only) • Ready in 1 hr 30 mins, plus cooling • Serves at least 10

325g plain flour

125g wholemeal flour

1tbsp bicarbonat­e of soda

2tbsp ground cinnamon

300g unrefined caster sugar

300ml sunflower oil

4 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten 1tbsp vanilla extract

100g each chopped pecans, desiccated coconut and sultanas

300g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated 432g can pineapple chunks (drained weight 260g), drained and puréed for the cream cheese frosting

560g Philadelph­ia cream cheese

200g butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted for the decoration

250g pack fondant icing few drops each orange and green food colouring you will need

4 x 18cm sandwich tins (you can bake the cake in batches if you don’t have enough tins), lined with baking parchment

1 Heat the oven to 180C, gas 4. in a very large bowl, sift all the dry ingredient­s together. stir in the sugar, then the oil and eggs. Mix it all together then add the remaining ingredient­s. Give it all a good mix then divide equally between the cake tins (or leave half in the fridge while you bake 2). bake the cakes for 20-25 mins until springy and cooked through. leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning out onto a cooling rack.

2 to make the frosting, whisk half the cream cheese with the butter and sugar until well combined, then add the remaining cream cheese and beat together. use the frosting to sandwich all the cakes together, then put onto your serving plate and cover the sides and top, using a palette knife.

3 to make the carrots, colour two thirds of the fondant icing with a few drops of orange colouring. Knead the remaining icing with the green colouring. take small pinches of orange icing and roll into smooth rounds, before pinching one end. Repeat until you have as many as you want. use a knife to create scratches in the carrots and use a toothpick to create a small dip in each top, where you’ll attach the “stalk”. to make the stalks, push the green icing through a garlic crusher. Pinch small bunches together and stick to the tops with a little water. leave to dry. We decorated the cake with the carrots and fresh gypsophila.

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