Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Carrot cake, i love this cake, as each piece is full with goodness of carrot. i tried this cake with wheat flour long back and loved it. this time i tried it with all purpose flour(maida). this time the cake was soft and turned out moist and good. but i recommend you to try with wheat flour, which makes the cake super healthy cake.

and i have to ramble about cream cheese frosting. finding cream cheese in India is so difficult. 

when i searched on net, i just happened to find tarla dalal's low fat cream cheese. actually her Cream cheese should be called as cottage cream cheese frosting according to me. last time when i tried her recipe and made the frosting, the frosting was runny and it did not impress me. this time i made few changes and got the frosting perfect. 

carrot cake made long back with runny cream cheese frosting and wheat flour

My son and hubby loved this carrot cake, i was serving this cake to them without any guilt, as its full of goodness with carrot, wheat flour and olive oil.  so go ahead and try for your family.

Carrot Cake

Yields - 16 pieces

shelf life : 1 week refrigerated

Recipe source: cakes and bakes book

preparation time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 45 - 50 minutes
Tried and tested:  twice

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 brown sugar
• 1 cup sunflower oil / olive oil
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour / all purpose flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups of grated carrot
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp of grated nutmeg

Topping / Cream cheese frosting:

• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp grated orange rind

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190c/375F.  I greased my 6*4 inch rectangular cake pan with little butter and lined with parchment paper.


2. Now coming to dry ingredients, sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon powder and nutmeg.  sift them all at least twice.


3. For wet ingredients, in a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until well blended. then add brown sugar and sunflower oil. beat them all together. now add the grated carrot and mix with a spatula.


4. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until well incorporated.


5. Spread the mixed mixture into the greased cake pan and place in the center wrack of the pre-heated oven.


6. Bake the cake for about 45-50 minutes until the cake is nicely risen, firm to touch and has begun to shrink away slightly from the edge of the pan. or insert a toothpick to the center of the cake and check whether it comes out clean.


7. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 15-20 mins, then turn to a wire wrack.


8. Slice the top bulged part of the cake, if you are planning to frost the cake.


9. To make the frosting, put all the ingredients mentioned under topping in a mixing bowl and beat together for about 2 minutes until they become super smooth.


10. When the cake is completely cold, spread the the cream cheese frosting. smooth over with a knife. sprinkle some orange rind over the top and leave up the cake to firm for few minutes till the frosting is set before you cut into pieces.


11. Store the cake in an air tight container in fridge. it will make up to a week.

Home made Cream cheese frosting / Cottage cream cheese:

So no more hunting for cream cheese. though even i spotted philadelphia cream cheese, it was so costly for me. now with easy home made cream cheese i can try out cheese cake soon.

                                 Home made Cream cheese / Cottage cream cheese




yields - little less than 1/2 cup 
preparation time: less than 15 minutes
refrigeration : overnight

Ingredients:

• Milk - 1/2 litre / 500 ml
• Vinegar - 3 tbsp  (or)  lemon juice - 2 tsp
• Curd - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Boil the milk and remove from flame. add vinegar or lemon juice to the hot milk and give a stir. you would see the the whey separating from the milk.


2. In a muslin cloth, drain the cottage cheese and squeeze away the whey.


3. Now in a mixer-grinder, add the cottage cheese, curd and grind into a smooth one.


4. Take a muslin cloth and pass the smoothly grounded cottage cheese and bring all the corners of the muslin cloth together and tie with a rubber band.


5. Put the tied muslin cloth in fridge for overnight, till it firms up.


6. Next day, bring the cottage cream cheese to room temperature before you start to prepare for frosting.

 Do try out this cake with frosting. this is one different cake out of just plain cakes. no one could guess the frosting, which has a hint of orange rind. i loved the frosting much! even the cake tasted so good with frosting.