Hi everyone, it’s me again.
As you’re probably all well aware we are currently in the middle of Series Two of Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard, on Channel 4 every weekday at 12.05pm. It’s been an exciting series so far with many delicious cakes and desserts being made. Some of our fabulous bloggers have been having a go at some of Eric’s recipes from the show so I thought why shouldn’t I have a go too!
I was torn between Erics Best Banana Cake and Erics Best Carrot Cake but in the end went for the carrot cake mainly because I didn’t have any ripe bananas and also because I LOVE carrot cake.
Eric’s Best Carrot Cake
(I halved the recipe because I only wanted to make one loaf)
3 Eggs
175 grams Light Muscovado Sugar (Billington’s)
200 ml Ground nut oil
200 grams Self Raising Flour (Allinson Nature Friendly)
1 tsp Cinnamon ground
1 tsp Nutmeg ground
200 grams Carrots grated
100 grams Sultanas golden
100 grams Walnuts roasted halves
For the icing:
125 grams Unsalted Butter
50 grams Cream cheese
300 grams Golden Icing Sugar (Billington’s)
Handful of walnuts
Handful of sultanas
First of all preheat your oven to 150C. Grease a regular 25cmx11cm (10×4.25 inch) loaf tin with butter and line with baking paper
Add the light muscovado sugar and ground nut oil to a mixing bowl. Break 3 eggs and add to the mixture and whisk.
Grate the carrots into the bowl and mix. Add the walnuts and sultanas to the bowl and mix. (Eric suggested golden sultanas and I wasn’t too sure what they were so I just used regular)
In a seperate bowl sift in the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold the mixture until fully mixed.
Pour the mixture into the loaf tins. Cook in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. (I had to leave mine in for an extra ten minutes because it didn’t seem cooked yet, but my oven isn’t that great) 
Half way through cooking, use a sharp knife to cut lengthways along the top of the loaf to create a dome like effect. I thought this was a fab tip, I had never known that’s how you do it!
Once cooked, remove from tins and allow to cool.
For the frosting, place the butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Add in the icing sugar and 1tsp of vanilla extract and mix with a hand whisker. Decant the frosting into a bowl and pop in the fridge to firm up (but not for too long, my frosting became a bit too hard and was difficult to spread!)
When firm take a palette knife and holding the loaf in your hands spread the frosting on starting around the sides and then piling it high on top. Smooth over the frosting for an even finish. For the final touch, sprinkle golden sultanas and walnuts on the top and dust with icing sugar.
Ta-dah! I was quite happy with it!
I had the same problem with the timing and had to cook the cake for an extra 20 minutes. But it looks great.
I want to use this as a base for a wedding cake do you think it would work. I would have to use dowels to support the next tier as they want to have perspex tubes between the tiers…any advice welcome!