Carrot and Banana Cake

If you are one of these people who can never decide whether a carrot or a banana cake is your favorite, hopefully you will be happy with this solution as it is a very successful (and delicious) combination of both of them.

The cake is wonderfully moist and addition of walnut pieces gives it extra texture. There are no spices added to the batter but this cake has a vanilla aroma due to the yummy icing. I must be honest with you, this is neither the lightest, nor the healthiest cake. But I do think that there is no harm in enjoying a slice of this wonderful cake occasionally, especially on a cold, autumn or winter afternoon with a cup of good tea or  coffee.

INGREDIENTS (for 8-12 portions):

Cake:

3 eggs,

175g brown sugar,

175g plain flour,

2 tsp baking powder,

1 tsp salt,

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda,

175ml sunflower oil,

175g walnuts, broken into pieces,

2 medium size ripe bananas, mashed,

175g grated carrot,

Icing:

75 g soft butter,

75g cream cheese,

150g icing sugar,

1 tsp vanilla extract,

Extra walnuts for decoration.

METHOD:

1. Preheat an oven to 170 Celsius degrees (150 fan ovens).
2. Grease a 20cm diameter cake tin with a removable base and cover its bottom with baking paper.
3. In a food processor or with electric mixer beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale.
4. Add sifted flour, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda; mix until everything is combined.
5. Add the oil, walnuts, bananas and carrots, mix.
6. Pour the batter into the cake tin, put to the hot oven and bake for approx. 75 minutes (until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean).
7. To make the icing, beat the butter and cream cheese together, add the sugar and vanilla and beat for little longer.
8. Spread the icing on the cold cake and decorate with walnuts.

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Healthier Carrot Cake (wholemeal flour)

I fell in love with carrot cakes from the first moment I tried one a few years ago. But this was still pretty late in my life – I was over 20. I think that the idea of baking a cake with a vegetable was in Poland at least pretty foreign for many years ;-) 

But my obsession started when I tried an  a m a z i n g  carrot cake while I was in Monterey, California. The cake was absolutely incredible: moist, heavy but heavenly! Since then I was on a search for the perfect recipe. I tried lots of different ones but have never been completely satisfied. And then one day I decided to do it my way: healthier (wholemeal flour and addition of apples) and lighter (little sugar and low-fat cream cheese). The result was incredible - my whole family agreed that was the best carrot cake I had ever baked!

P.S. If you don’t have to count calories, cut the baked and cooled down cake into two horizontal parts, double the amount of icing ingredients and use half of the prepared icing to spread on one half of the cake. Cover with the second half of the cake and spread the rest of icing on top of it.

INGREDIENTS:

350g grated carrots,

150g apples cut into small pieces,

200g wholemeal flour,

80g dark muscovado sugar,

2 tsp baking soda,

1 tsp salt,

1 tsp cinnamon,

1 tsp gingerbread spices (or mixture of equal amounts of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves),

70ml rapeseed oil,

3 eggs,

5 tbsp milk,

50g raisins,

Icing:

100g low-fat cream cheese,

1 tbsp soft butter,

1 cup icing sugar,

1 tsp vanilla extract.

METHOD:

1. Grease a 20-24 cm diameter round baking tin and put a greaseproof paper on the bottom of it.
2. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees.
3. In a big bowl mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, gingerbread spices and cinnamon.
4. In another bowl beat together the oil, eggs, milk and add to the dry ingredients, stir quickly only until everything is combined.
5. Add the carrots, apples, raisins; stir again.
6. Pour the batter to the tin and bake for 25-30 min. (until a wooden stick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean) and take it out from the oven.
7. Let it rest for 10 min. in a baking tin and then on a wire rack until it cools completely.
8. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese with butter till combined, add the icing sugar and vanilla.
9. Spread the icing on top of the cold cake.

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