Recipe: Carrot cake

Just thinking about this wonderful combination of sweet and savoury is enough to make your mouth water. As far as we’re concerned, the savoury content means you can get away with eating carrot cake at any time of day without feeling over-indulgent!

Recipe courtesy of Cook Vegetarian.
Serves: 10
Cooking time: 60+ mins

Ingredients
For the cake:
2 free-range eggs, separated
225g light muscovado sugar
175g butter or margarine, melted
150g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp mixed spice
25g chopped walnuts
25g sultanas
175g carrots, finely grated

For the topping:
200g Philadelphia
50g icing sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Grease and line the base of a 20cm springform cake tin.

Cream together the egg yolks, sugar and melted butter or margarine. Stir in 2 tbsp warm water. Place the remaining cake ingredients in a bowl, make a well in the centre, add the egg mixture and beat thoroughly.

Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until they stand in soft peaks. Fold carefully into the cake mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream together the Philadelphia and icing sugar until soft and creamy. Stir in most of the lemon zest and spread over the cake. Decorate with a little more grated lemon zest if required.