Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Oh how exciting, I have received a one lovely blog award from Jeanne at simplemathbakery. I feel so giggly, as I feel so much as a newbie to this regular food blogging world, and I am overwhelmed with all these lovely blogs and my task to keep up with them. I feel like I comment much too little and receive too much. Thus, I am honoured to pass on the one lovely blog award and leave you with a list of 12 of my favourite foodies out there. I read you, even if I don’t manage to comment regularly! Here they come, in no particular order:

• caffeiiina – a fellow European now living in the States. I adore her photographs, even if she feels she needs to improve. If she does – wow then people will be blown away, because her photographs are already intruiging right now.
• myfoodthoughts – I love how passionately he writes about food, his thoughts and how he is constantly active on twitter promoting his posts and keeping in touch with other foodies. How does he manage?
• simplemathbakery – Lovely blog with simple math, simple ingredients and stunning results. I, as a scientist am very much attracted to this kind of baking : )
• hotpolkadot – an artist who wants to make things pretty. Well she manages so well. Her creations always beautifully presented!
• deliciousdays – THE German foodblog. Need I say more? Yes: it is in English, yay!
• greenkitchenstories – for me this beautiful blog has this very specific and special scandinavian touch. Relaxed, minimal and very very appealing.
• completelydelicious – completely delicious! And she caters to. You are one lucky bast*** if you live in the Salt Lake City area.
• let her bake a cake – good old-fashioned home baking with both a Canadian and English twist. Yum!
• cakespy – bakeries, baking experiments and food-related products. All in one spot.
• tartelette a food stylist presenting you with the most adorable photographs and recipes.
• joy the baker – what a joy! What can I say, probably all of you know her already. It’s always a treat to visit her site.
• foodieinberlin.com! a different kind of foodblog: a foodie always on the hunt for good food-related places in Berlin! That’s my cup of tea.

And while we just changed our clocks here and the day ends with incoming darkness around 4.30pm, I thought I would like to share this particular carrot cake recipe which I combined from too many sources to name them. It is a rustic cake – very moist and features coarsely chopped carrots and walnuts and all those fall flavors which are the best when you can snuggle up under blankets and with a cup of tea. This cake may not be the prettiest, but it is well worth a try.

Ingredients:

• 125 g butter
• 250 g carrots, coarsely grated
• 5 tsp vanilla sugar
• 150 g valnuts , chopped
• 225 g muscovado sugar
• 3 eggs
• 175 g all-purpose flour
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp cinnamon
• 0.5 tsp clove
• 0.5 tsp nutmeg

For the frosting:

• 200 g cream-cheese
• 250 g confectioners’ sugar
• 50 g butter, softened

Directions:

Grease one standard sized bundt form, or two small ones (which are half the size of the big standard one of course).

Preheat oven to 175°C / 350 °F. In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking powder. With your standmixer and the paddle attachment beat butter, sugar, cinnamon, megnut and cloves until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until mixed after each addition. Then add and mix carrots and nuts. At the end add flour and just beat until mixed. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Using the muscovado sugar the cake will start getting a dark appearance – this is correct, don’t worry. Use your cake tester to get sure when the cake is done. Ovens vary so much, I don’t like to prescribe baking times. et the cake cool for about 15 minutes. Then, run a knive around the edges of the cake and turn the bundt form upside down and remove the cake. Let cool a bit longer. In the meantime add butter and cream cheese into a medium bowl. Sift powder sugar into butter and cream cheese. Using a handmixer beat until the mixture is smooth. The more cream cheese you add, the thinner the mixture will get. When the mixture is finished spread on top of the cake. I used a tablespoon and made the frosting drip down a bit by giving it a little push with the backside of the spoon.