Carrot and pineapple cake

Got some older carrots lurking in the vegetable crisper? This carrot and pineapple cake by sustainability expert Lottie Dalziel is the ideal way to put them to good use. For a handy trick, try soaking particularly bendy carrots in cold water to help perk them up before using.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  8

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  55 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• Softened butter, for greasing
• 2 cups (300 g) plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• 200 ml vegetable oil
• 2 cups coarsely grated carrot
• 400 g crushed canned pineapple, drained
• 1½ cups caster sugar

For the icing

• 250 g butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250 g cream cheese, softened
• 5 cups (750 g) icing sugar mixture, sifted

Resting time: 10 minutes

Cooling time: at least one hour

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170˚C fan-forced. Grease a 23 cm springform cake tin with butter.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the eggs, vegetable oil, carrot, pineapple and sugar and mix well to a thick batter.
3. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes before removing from the tin to cool fully.
4. Once completely cooled, make the icing. Place the butter, vanilla and cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted. Beat on medium speed until smooth, then gradually add the icing sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Spread the cream cheese icing over the cooled carrot and pineapple cake. Cut into wedges to serve.

Notes

• Grease your tins with butter rather than using baking paper for a more sustainable choice, as baking paper cannot be recycled.
• You can freeze this cake iced or uniced. It can also be made into muffins.

Photography by Jiwon Kim.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

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