Niki Louca shares her favourite carrot cake recipe

Niki Louca from My Greek Kitchen shares her favourite recipe for carrot cake with The Greek Herald. You can follow her on Instagram @mygreekkitchen for more!

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups S.R. flour
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp all spice
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups granulated white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups coarsely grated carrots
• ½ cup crushed pineapple (with juice)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Frosting:

• ¼ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 250 gm cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 ¾ cups icing sugar mixture
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 170C/350F.
2. Sift the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and baking soda together and set aside.
3. Line the bottom of a 24-26 cm round cake tin with baking paper and lightly grease. I use a 24cm tin because cake is a little bigger/taller and I prefer that.  If you do use a smaller tin, the baking time will be slightly longer, so keep that in mind.
4. Beat the oil and sugar together in a standalone mixer for 3-4 minutes till properly incorporated and sugar starts to melt. Add the eggs one at a time and making sure it is well blended after each one. 
5. Add the flour mixture in 3 or 4 increments making sure your mixer is at the lowest speed and do not over mix (15-20 seconds with each addition). Over beating the batter will make it denser and a tougher mixture.  The same thing can also happen when you under mix it.
6. Fold in the carrots, pineapple and walnuts (if using).
7. Pour batter into your tin and bake for about 1 hour. If the top browns too quickly, cover with foil and continue to bake. Check to see if a wooden skewer comes out clean when you insert into the cake and you should also notice the sides of the cake should slightly come away from the tin. Remove cake from oven once baked and leave in tin for 10-15 minutes before removing it from the tin. Allow to cool completely before icing it.

For the frosting:

1.  With a hand-held mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together till smooth.  Add the vanilla extract, and, in increments add the icing sugar, making sure it is well incorporated each time. Once all the sugar is added keep beating for a further 1-2 minutes as this will create a smoother and fluffier frosting. 
2. Decorate as you please. Amounts is enough to frost the whole cake on top and sides or top and the middle if you choose to.

This cake can be made in advance and iced and frozen up to two weeks.

Niki Louca runs cooking classes in Melbourne. For more or to book classes visit My Greek Kitchen at www.mygreekkitchen.com.au or Instagram @mygreekkitchen. You can email Niki at: niki@mygreekkitchen.com.au.