It’s that time of year, Great British Bake Off is on the telly and what a comforting way to see in autumn than snuggled up with tea and cake. This one uses carrots and courgettes, still in season at the moment and they work together to keep this deliciously moist.
Roughly 16 slices (but could be as few as 12)
- 200g butter
- 180g caster sugar (ideally brown, but white would work if that is all you have)
- 3 eggs
- 300g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 bananas, mashed
- 3-4 carrots, peeled and grated
- 1 large (or 2 smaller) courgettes, grated
- 100g nuts, crumbled or chopped roughly (I like walnuts, but it’s personal taste)
- 100ml milk
- 280g cream cheese
- 100g icing sugar
- A drop of vanilla essence
How to:
- Grease and line a 23cm springform tin and preheat the oven to 180˚/ gas mark 4
- Cream together the butter and caster sugar, using either a fork or food processor.
- Beat the eggs and mix these and the milk into the butter and sugar.
- Mix in the mashed bananas.
- Sift the flour into the mixture and add the baking powder. Fold it in.
- Gently stir in the grated carrot, grated courgette and crumbled nuts.
- Pour in to the lined cake tin, pop in the oven and bake for an hour.
- After an hour, carefully check it. If you insert a knife in to the centre, it should come out clean if cooked. If not, pop it back in for another 5-10 minutes, then check it again.
- Once baked, leave it to cool for a while then remove from the tin and leave to go cold on a cooling rack, whilst you whip up the topping.
- Mix together the cream cheese with a drop of vanilla essence and sieved icing sugar. Smear it on the cake and decorate as you like, swirl with a fork, douse it in more nuts or scatter it with sprinkles.
By ALISON POWELL