Kemi's Carrot Cake

By Adekemi Ukadike

I usually fail at carrot cake. I mean over the years all my carrot cakes have come out, well, DIFFERENT. After trying different recipes, I came up with this version which is tasty, moist and fluffy! Enjoy.

Ingredients
5 medium (7-8 inches or 2 1/2 cups) carrots
1/2 c apple sauce or 1 large apple
1c raisins (mine were soaked in ports wine)
1/4 c butter (salted)
3/4 c vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour

large baking tin (about 9 inches) I used an old large cookie tin!

with

Lemon frosting
300g confectioners sugar (about a cup)
150 g butter (about a stick-and-a-half)
grated lemon rind of one medium lemon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Grate carrots with the coarse end of a grater. Grate apple as well, if you are not using apple sauce.
In a separate bowl, sift flour with baking powder and soda, set aside. Melt 1/4 cup of butter and add 3/4 cup of oil. In a large bowl, combine oil mixture with sugar, carrots, apples, eggs and mix well. Add raisins. Then add lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix well.
Add dry ingredients to mixture and mix until smooth. Prepare your baking tin by rubbing with butter, and then sprinkling with flour. Beat the tin from side to side, spreading the flour evenly, like a dusting or flour. Discard loose flour in tin. Pour mixture into tin and place in the center rack of the oven. It takes about an hour to bake, or when knife comes out dry...
For the Frosting: Grate lemon rind onto confectioners sugar and let sit for a few mins. Add butter and mix thoroughly until fluffy and white. When cake is done, let it cool well before adding frosting!
Served With:
A nice cup of tea or coffee
Notes:
Lovely cake! Comes out very fluffy and moist.

The article Kemi's Carrot Cake was Submitted by Adekemi Ukadike through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Kemi is the editor of http://www.bizibodie.com, an African arts and lifestyle Website.