Carrot cake tray bake with mascarpone icing

Nearly December and the Christmas shopping has begun! I love Christmas and all things festive! We saw some good lights around Covent garden yesterday with one of the biggest Christmas trees you will see! You can never hear Mariah Carey too often and even the festive adverts are good this year!

This is a recipe I made during the week. I really like carrot cake but had yet to find a great recipe. This one is fairly easy to make and turns out deliciously moist and full of fruity flavour. I was a bit nervous about adding pineapple AND apricots but it gives a lovely light flavour and a perfectly textured cake. It was taken from British Bake Off book (still working through it) and one I will be doing again.

For the cake: -
3carrots
100g pineapple
40g dried apricots
50g sultanas
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
150g unsalted butter
270g caster sugar
2 eggs
275g Plain flour
1 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Topping: -
250g mascarpone
150g icing sugar
50g flaked almonds (This is just what I had in the cupboard, you could use chopped hazelnuts / walnuts)

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Grate the carrot and put into a bowl. Add the pineapple and apricots (cut into small pieces) then the sultanas. Squeeze in half the half the juice and zest and stir well.
2. In another bowl, add the butter and sugar and beat well with a wooden spoon. Gradually add the eggs beating in between. Sift  the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon and fold in. Add this mixture to the carrot mixture and put into a tin lined with baking paper. Spread evenly.

3. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes when the cake has turned golden and a knife comes out clean when when tested.
4. To make the icing, put the mascarpone in a mixing bowl then sift in the icing sugar. Add the left over orange zest and and mix well with a wooden spoon. Add some orange juice if the mixture is too stiff. Put in the fridge to chill until the cake is cold.
5. Spread the icing sugar mixture over the cake and sprinkle the nuts on top. Slice to your desired size.

Enjoy the festive season!