Carrot & Orange Traybake

Give the humble carrot a whole new taste twist in this delicious traybake!

Coarsely grated, carrot helps the cake mixture to stay moist, and adds texture. Together with soft brown sugar and a dusting of cinnamon, the cake is firmly on the brown/orange/cream colour spectrum, which I find very pleasing, and very 1970s.

What’s more, flavouring the soft cheese frosting with orange gives me a basis for adding one of my favourite ever bands to the ADK Playlist.

More of the music in a moment. First of all, here’s how to make Carrot & Orange Traybake.

Servings

How many individual portions this makes depends on how small (or large!) you decide to cut the slices. Mine made around 20 slices, each about 6cm x 4cm, to fill two tins, one of which is shown below.

Timings

10 – 15 mins to prepare the mixture, and 25 mins to bake in the oven at 180C. Add 10 mins for the orange frosting.

You Will Need

• 225g butter or spread
• 225g soft brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 225g self-raising flour
• half tsp salt
• 3 tsps mixed spice
• 300g carrots

For the orange frosting:

• 100g butter, softened
• 100g icing sugar
• 200g soft cream cheese
• 1 tsp orange extract
• cinnamon for dusting

Method

1. Turn the oven on at 180C. Grease and line a baking tin (the one I used is 23cm square).
2. Put the softened butter and sugar together in a bowl and mix with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
3. Add in the eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of the flour after each one. Mix in each time, using the whisk.
4. Add in the rest of the flour, the salt and mixed spice, and fold in with a spatula to incorporate.
5. Grate the carrots – I used an electric food processor with grating tool fitted. Add the grated carrot into the mix and fold in again with the spatula. Make sure that all the grated carrot is wet with a coating of the mixture.
6. Scrape the mixture into the baking tin and level the surface. Put in the oven for around 25 mins, until it is golden all over and a skewer put into the middle of the cake comes out dry.
7. Let it cool in the tin for about 30 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to complete the cooling.
8. Make the orange frosting by putting all the ingredients in a bowl and mixing together with an electric whisk.
9. When the cake has completely cooled, transfer to a chopping board. Spread the frosting evenly over the top, and dust with a little cinnamon. Cut into slices and keep in a box or tin till they’re all eaten. That won’t be long, however.

Customise it!

If you wish, you could use chopped walnuts to sprinkle over, in place of the cinnamon. I used orange extract as it gives an intense flavour, but if you like you could use a little orange juice, and/or zest in the frosting, instead.

Did someone say Orange Juice? Here’s Edwyn and the lads with Felicity.