How to make Carrot Cake

Ingredients
* 300g soft light brown sugar
* 3 eggs
* 300ml sunflower oil
* 300g plain flour
* 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
* 1⁄2 tsp ground ginger
* 1⁄2 tsp salt
* 1⁄4 tsp vanilla extract 
* 300g carrots, grated
* Zest of half an orange
* 100g sultans​​

For the icing
* 600g icing sugar (I only used 500g and it was fine) 
* 100g butter (at room temperature)
* 250g cream cheese (cold)

Preheat the oven to 170C. Prepare 3 x 20cm cake tins with loose bottoms by greasing then lining the bottoms with greaseproof paper.

Put the sugar, eggs and oil in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat until all the ingredients are well mixed (don’t worry if it looks slightly split). Slowly add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, orange zest and vanilla extract and continue to beat until well mixed.

Stir in the grated carrots and sultans by hand.
Pour into the prepared cake tins and smooth over. 

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Bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes (mine took 40 minutes, which seems to be the feedback from other cooks too), or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment again until well mixed. Add the cream cheese, then beat again until well mixed. Turn the speed to high and continue to beat until light and fluffy but stop when you reach this point; if you over beat it the mixture will turn runny. When the cakes are cold, spread about one-quarter of the cream cheese icing over it with a palette knife (I used less). Place a second cake on top and spread another quarter of the icing over it (again, I used less). Top with the last cake and spread the remaining icing over the top and sides. Decorate with orange zest around the edges and chopped pecans on top.

Hummingbird suggest adding an extra dusting of cinnamon but I’m really not into that at all – the cake is now delicious.