Carrot Cake with lemon cream cheese frosting

OMG! Seven Seas Cafe again!

Just want to try out their Penang asam laksa as i had tried their famous prawn mee yesterday.

The asam laksa can considered nice and i have a take away of prawn mee requested by my hubby, nasi lemak ordered by my son and a katsu chicken for my daughter. That means i no need to cook dinner tonight. Yahoo!

Had a run with my kids after school just to make sure i am not putting up weight after all this sinful meals. Haha....

Actually running just to keep myself warm especially in this winter time.

Made some tart shells for next Tuesday gathering as kids having their school holiday starts tomorrow :)

Having a cup of tea with my husband after his dinner. We both have a piece of carrot cake at the same time. One of my favourite cake especially top up with the lemon cheese cream frosting but i knew my kids will never like it because of the cinnamon.

I had made a full portion of arrot cake this time. Knowing that nobody in the house will enjoy it except myself, I, therefore ask my husband to bring it to his office.

His colleagues love it so much. This really surprised me.

Actually, I do not have confident to make cakes for the whites especially this carrot cake as i know that this is one of their traditional cake. They must have tried and knew about this cake better than me. Anyway, i have a lovely feed back from all of them and this really motivated me to move on :)

Ingredients:

• 100g walnuts, toasted and set aside for cooling
• 300g skin off finely grated carrots
• 250g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• 150g brown sugar
• 100g fine white sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1tbsp sour cream
• 240ml canola oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp finely grated lemon zest

Cream cheese frosting:

• 125g cream cheese at room temparature
• 30g unsalted butter
• 100g sifted pure icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• finely grated lemon zest from 1 lemon
• Beat the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add in the sifted icing sugar and mix well on low speed until smooth . Beat in the lemon extract and lemon zest. Set aside.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Toast walnuts for about 5-8 minutes until lightly browned and fragrant. Set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon.
4. Beat the eggs until frothy. Add in the brown sugar follow by the white sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light in colored.
5. Add in the sour cream and continuing beat until well combined.
6. Slowly add in oil and then beat in the lemon juice and vanilla extract.
7. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.
8. Use spatula to fold in the grated carrots, walnuts and lemon zest.
9. Pour the batter into a greased and lined 13x24x7 inch loaf tin and bake for 60 minutes or until the cake is well cooked. You may use a 9x13x2 inch brownies tin to bake the cake for about 40 mins. As i am a bit weird and love to having a tall big pcs of cake like banana loaf, therefore i choose the loaf tin to bake my carrot cake.
10. remove from oven and let it cool on a wire rack.
11. Invert cake onto wire rack for cooling before frosting.
12. Spread cream cheese frosting on top of cake. Cover and refrigerate before serving.