Carrot & Pecan Cake

AGREAT way to use this season’s carrots is in a cake. This one layer traybake is easy to put together for an Easter treat and will keep for a day or two thanks to the oil.

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 orange, zest and juice

150g caster sugar

2 free range eggs

150ml light and mild olive oil 215g wholemeal flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon

250g carrots, grated

125g pecan nuts, broken into pieces

For the icing:

150g cream cheese

75g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4

2. Line a 20cm/8 in square tin with baking paper

3. Place the orange zest into a small dish; cover and refrigerate

4. Juice the orange into a medium bowl

5. Into this bowl add the eggs, oil and sugar and beat until well combined

6. Into a separate bowl mix the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon

7. Sieve these dry ingredients into the wet. There will be bran left in your sieve from the wholemeal flour so tip this in too and and mix gently

8. Fold in the grated carrot and 100g of pecan nuts (reserving 25g to garnish) 9. Pour the batter into your lined cake tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean; leave to cool

10. To make the icing use a fork to mix the cream cheese with the icing sugar until thoroughly combined

11. Spread over the cooled cake and garnish with the remaining nuts and orange zest. www.facebook.com/ freelyfruityuk/