One of my Youtube viewers recently suggested, and sent me a link to, a recipe for Nordic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. I love carrot cake, so I was immediately tempted by his suggestion that I make it.
The recipe he suggested was on Nordic Food & Living and it looked very good indeed. The recipe went straight on to my list of things to bake. I am so glad it did as the cake is wonderful.
The cake is flavoured with ground cinnamon but I believe that it is often enhanced with other spices too, particularly ground cardamom. and ginger.
Of course, we all know that carrot cake is a favourite all over the world. It can be easily adapted to personal preference too by the addition of some nuts or even dried fruits into the batter.
For my cake I simply added some walnut halves on to the top of the individual squares, once baked.
This cake, or dessert, is actually quick and easy to make. My cake turned out so well, I enjoyed it immensely.
Another very popular bake from Scandinavia is St Lucia Buns – Lussekatter
Nordic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Course: Cakes, DessertsDifficulty: Easy24
servings30
minutes40
minutesIngredients
- For the cake:
375g(1 3/4 cups) grated carrots
275g(1 2/3 cups + 2 tbsp, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour
200ml(1/2 cup + 1/3 cup) vegetable oil(flavourless oil)
4 medium eggs(large in USA)
300g(1 1/2 cups – packed) light brown sugar
6g(1 tsp) salt
10g(2 1/2 tsp) baking powder
6g(2 tsp) ground cinnamon
- For the frosting:
300g(1 1/4 cups + 1 1/2 tbsp) cream cheese
180g( 13 tbsp) softened unsalted butter
270g(2 1/4 cups) icing sugar
10ml(2 tsp) vanilla extract
up to 24 walut halves, to top the cake (optional)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 185C/165C Fan/365F.
- Grease an 8×12 inch(20×30 cm) cake pan and line it with parchment paper. ( a slightly larger pan will be fine).
- In a large bowl whisk the sugar and oil together until fully combined.
- Continue whisking and add the eggs, one at a time, until they are fully combined.
- Add the grated carrot and thoroughly mix it in.
- Mix the baking powder, cinnamon and salt into the flour.
- Then add the flour into the wet mixture and fold in until fully combined.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. It should level across the base without needing to be spread.
- Bake the cake in the oven for 40 minutes. A skewer poked into the centre should come out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool and then transfer to a cooling rack.
- When the cake is fully cooled place the cream cheese and butter into a large bowl and whisk thoroughly until fully combined.
- Add the vanilla extract and whisk again.
- Spread the mixture evenly over the top of the cake and leave it to set up(in the fridge) for 15 minutes or so.
- Add the icing sugar(sifting it if it is a little lumpy) to the mixture and whisk until fully combined.
- Cut the cake into 24 squares and, if desired, add half a walnut to the top of each.