Sweet-car-par Cake with a Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot cake is always a popular favourite and there are many variations to make. Back in the 1980s when I worked in a lovely daytime cafe in Godalming, Surrey, I used to make large trays topped with a rich cream cheese topping. In that decade a cake with vegetables was quite a strange thing! Nowadays all sorts of vegetables end up in a cake be it for health or flavour reasons.

Using vegetables in a cake keeps it moist and helps reduce the addition of too much sugar as they contain natural sugars.

The other day, wanting to make a carrot cake, i found myself short on carrots…. but I did have a sweet potato and a parsnip needing to be used up. So this is the recipe I created, and I think the colour and flavour is even better than my original carrot cake recipe.

What do you think?

Print Recipe

Sweet-car-par Cake with a Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• Makes 1 large cake 20cm x 30cm or 12 large muffins
• 250 g wholemeal plain flour
• 175 g dark brown sugar
• 175 g light brown sugar
• 75 g dessicated coconut
• 90 g grated carrot
• 90 g grated parsnip
• 90 g grated sweet potato
• 3 large eggs or if you have some egg yolks over from making meringues and don't know what to do with them, I have successfully made this cake using 3 egg yolks and 1 whole egg
• 1 tsp/5g bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp/5g ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp/5g ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 50 g cream cheese or greek yogurt
• 175 ml sunflower oil
• Optional extras - handful of raisins sultanas or walnuts

Topping

• 100 g full fat cream cheese
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 50 g sifted icing sugar
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven Gas Mark 3/150C
• Place the eggs, sugars, oil, vanilla essence and cream cheese or yogurt in a large mixing bowl.
• Whisk well until creamy - about 2 minutes.
• In another bowl sift together the flours, spices and bicarbonate of soda.
• Gently fold into the wet mixture, mixing well.
• Combine the grated vegetables together and add to the mixture with the coconut.
• Spoon into the cake tin or muffin cases.
• Bake for 45 minutes- 1 hour for the cake and 30-35 minutes for the muffins.
• When the cake is cooled, turn out. Mix the topping ingredients together until smooth and spread thickly over the top.

Notes

I have tried this cake using both cream cheese or yogurt in the cake mix, and both have been successful. Sometimes you just have a bit left in the fridge so this gives you a chance to use it up and have a yummy cake!