Orange, Walnut, and Carrot Cake

Made this to use up some carrots, best recipe ever! The original was from the BBC but I wanted half the amount and also found some issues with the recipe. So I've fixed it up and, well, here it is!

125g unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups caster sugar

rind of 1 orange, grated

2 eggs

1 cup carrots, grated

75g walnuts, chopped

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

juice of 1/2 orange

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Icing

225g cream cheese (like Philadelphia) (room temperature)

65g unsalted butter (room temperature)

400g icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

Preheat the oven to 180degC.

Thoroughly grease a cake tin (lining the bottom with greaseproof paper helps).

Beat the butter, sugar, and orange rind until they are light and fluffy. If you don't have an electric beater, I recommend using your fingers to mush the sugar and butter together and then a wooden spoon to mix it around more.

Slowly add the eggs, one at a time, beating well before adding more.

Add the carrot and nuts.

Add the vanilla essence and orange juice.

Add the flour, bicarb soda, spices and salt and mix well.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 30-45 mins, or until a skewer/knife in the centre comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack for further cooling.

Icing

Mix the room temperature cheese and butter together until smooth, add the icing sugar and vanilla essence and mix well until smooth.

Spread icing on cool cake.

Make a nice cup of tea and enjoy your delicious cake!!