Carrot Cake with liqueur soaked sultanas
This fabulous recipe is from What Katie Ate – by Katie Quinn Davies. Katie uses Cointreau in her recipe, I use Da Mhile Orange 33 Organic Liqueur – which is delicious.
Ingredients
80g sultanas, juice of 1 blood orange, 1 tablespoon Da Mhile Orange liqueur (or Cointreau), 75g brown sugar, 125ml rapeseed oil, 125ml runny honey, 3 free-range eggs, 1 vanilla pod (split and seeds scraped), 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 225g plain flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, pinch salt, 3 grated carrots, small handful of roughly chopped walnuts.
Cream cheese icing ingredients – 135g icing sugar, 85g softened unsalted butter, 80g cream cheese, 1 tablespoon whipping cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Makes 12
Place the sultanas, blood orange juice and liqueur in a small bowl and leave in the fridge overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180c (fan) 200c or gas mark 6. Grease a 12 hole cupcake mould/baking tin.
Place the brown sugar, oil, honey, eggs and vanilla seeds in a large bowl. Sift the ginger, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into another large bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine. Stir in the grated carrot and soaked sultanas.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, filling each hole 3/4 full. Bake for 45 – 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on wire rack.
To make the icing, mix all the ingredients in an electric mixer for about 10 minutes until light and fluffy.
Let the cakes cool and serve them topped with a scattering of chopped walnuts and drizzle of honey – if you fancy.