Carrot Cake - Birthday Style!

Ingredients:

• 300g carrots, peeled
• 100g fresh root ginger (if you don’t like the taste of ginger, you can leave it out or you could add 100g crushed, well-drained pineapple – this adds an Hawaiian twist)
• 225g soya margarine
• 80g light muscovado sugar
• zest of one orange
• 5 organic free range eggs
• 125g buckwheat flour
• 125g stone-ground wholemeal flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 50g blanched almonds, roasted and ground
• 100g macadamia nuts, chopped

For the frosting:

• 400g extra light cream cheese or quark
• 2 tbsp honey
• seeds of one vanilla pod
• 3 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice
• chopped macadamia nuts to decorate

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°. Line a 20cm round, deep, cake tin with lightly greased parchment paper.
2. Grate the carrots quite coarsely and squeeze with kitchen paper to remove any excess moisture. If you use the ginger, peel and grate the ginger. Alternatively crush the pineapple and drain well. Beat the margarine, sugar and orange zest until creamy and fluffy. Then add the ginger or pineapple, before adding the eggs a little at a time. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg into bowl, then add the almonds, grated carrots and macadamia nuts and stir gently together until just combined.
3. Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for about an hour until well risen and just golden brown. Test with a wooden skewer if the whole cake is baked through. Remove from the tin and leave to cool.
4. To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese in a bowl with the honey, add the vanilla seeds and orange juice. Spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake.
5. Scatter with the macadamia nuts to decorate.

NOTE – Store any leftover cake in a sealed container in the fridge and it will keep longer.