Ginger-Pecan Carrot Cake

I made my first cake when I was ten years old and home, playing hooky from school. A carrot cake seemed like a good idea at the time. Despite the fact that I had no idea how to bake a cake, I decided to forge ahead. There were carrots in the kitchen and after a quick check that the other ingredients I had seen my mother use while baking, were available as well – I got started. This was improvisation at it’s…worst.

A few cups of four, some milk, eggs, sugar and chopped (yes, large chunks of carrot as I was scared to scrape my fingers on the grater) mixed together and baked about approximately 500°F for an hour.

The result was something resembling an alien pod that would require a laser to cut through.

Afraid to get into trouble, I cleaned up the evidence and wrapped the alien carrot pod in aluminum foil (rendering even more susceptible to radio-waves – perfect for localization by the Mother-Ship). I hid it in the most logical place: my bedside table.

A few months later my carrot cake pod mysteriously disappeared. Twenty years passed before I discovered where it went. Feeling safe from punishment, I told my mother about the experiment. She laughed and told me that she did indeed find the cake, wrapped in aluminum foil in my bedside table. It was molded and completely unidentifiable. But she never said a word, nor did she punish me.

I never attempted carrot cake improvisation again…until yesterday.

Carrot cake is rather polarizing. People either love it or hate it. The same applies to ginger. So for those of you who love both carrot cake and ginger – this is for you.

The recipe has a couple special adaptions from me. I wanted the most moist cake possible without it becoming too dense. To accomplish this I added organic baby food! Puréed baby carrots.

The ginger is soft candied ginger and instead of walnuts I used something closer to home for a Georgia Girl: pecans.

3 medium eggs

250g brown sugar

150ml of sunflower or vegetable oil

250g grated carrots

2 pots (130ms each) baby food – pure puréed carrots

300g flour

100g chopped pecans

100g chopped (soft) candied ginger (rinse off any crystal sugar coating and pat dry before chopping)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp ground nutmeg

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

For the Icing:

400g icing sugar
300g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 180c. Line a square baking tin (about 20 cm on each side) with baking paper.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs at high speed, add the sugar and continue beating until pale and fluffy. Keep the whisk on at high speed, and add the oil in a steady stream. Keep beating until the mixture holds the shape of any trail across the surface. Add baby food puréed carrots.

Gently fold in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, bicarb, grated carrots, chopped ginger, pecans and salt, and then fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Divide and transfer the mixture to your tins and bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. If it browns too much before the middle is done.

Prepare the icing by using an electric whisk, add the powdered sugar and cream cheese together. Once that is all in and mixed, carry on using the electric whist until any lumps have gone from the icing. Put in the fridge to set.

Once your cake is done, leave to cool for 10-15 mins, before turning onto a wire rack. Then, refridgerate for at least four hours. Afterwards, spread the icing generously over the top.

Garnish with ginger candies and pecans.

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