Good morning on this very wet Autumn day in Scotland...... Thought I'd pop in and as requested by a very dear and sorely missed friend, now living in Australia, give the recipe for my Carrot Cake (sorry I don't have any photos, next time I promise).  This recipe was sent to me by my loving Mom, it's easy to make and goes down a treat each time.  Enjoy .....

Ingredients:-

150g Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Bicardbonate of Soda
100g Soft brown sugar
2 Eggs
125ml Oil (do not use olive oil, either vegetable or sunflower types)
1/2 Zest of one Lemon (grated) and 1/2 Zest of one Orange (grated) (you can just use one Lemon or one Orange if you prefer)
100g Carrots finely grated
75g Chopped Walnuts (optional)
110g Crushed Pineapples

Method:- 

1. Preheat your oven to 150ºC / 130ºC fan oven / Gas Mark 2.  Line a 20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and bicardonate of soda together.  Stir in the sugar.
3. Beat the eggs together with the oil and citrus zest.
4. Stir the carrots into the oil mixture.
5. Stir the oil / carrot mixture into the flour mixture and combine as evenly as possible.
6. Fold in the nuts (optional) and the pineapple.
7. Spoon the mixture inot the tin, level out the surface and bake for 1 hour - 1 hour 20 minutes, until the skewer comes out clean.  Allow to cool in tin.

Tips:-

I get all my ingredients ready before I start mixing, i.e. grating the carrots, sifting the dry ingredients so that when I start, I don't have to stop to measure anything out.  Also I use a loaf tin, find this better than a round tin. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:-

60g Butter at room temperature
25g Icing Sugar
125g Cream Cheese

Method:-

1. Beat together the butter and icing sugar until soft. 
2. Beat in the cream cheese.
3. Chill the mixture in the fridge till it's thick and spreadable.  Spread  a thick layer on top of the cold cake.  If you like, you can decorate with some halved walnuts... 

Hope you all enjoy this cake, it is very moist and always a big hit with my work colleagues.....