Wholemeal carrot cake

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipes Wholemeal carrot and honey cake recipe

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Date Published:
28/05/2009

Hugh whips up a healthier version of tea time favourite, carrot cake, in River Cottage

Serves at least 12

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 150g golden caster sugar
  • 300ml rapeseed oil or, for a slightly lighter flavour, 150ml each rapeseed and sunflower oil
  • 4 medium-large carrots, peeled and finely grated
  • 300g wholemeal self-raising flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 150g jar runny honey

For the icing (optional)

  • 125g unsalted butter, softened
  • 250g cream cheese
  • Finely grated zest of 3 oranges
  • 50g-100g icing sugar, or to taste, sieved

Method: How to make wholemeal carrot and honey cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm diameter, springform cake tin.

2. Put the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a mixer. Using the mixer, or electric beaters, beat together for about 10 minutes, until pale, foamy and slightly thickened. Add the oil and beat for a couple of minutes more.

3. Combine the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda and sieve them into the mixture. Tip any bran left in the sieve into the mixture too. Fold in lightly. Finally, fold in the grated carrot. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

4. Scrape the honey into a saucepan. Set over a low heat and heat gently until the honey is liquid. Pierce the hot cake all over with a small knife, or a skewer. Slowly pour on the hot honey so it soaks into the cake. Leave in the tin to cool completely before turning out.

5. The cake is lovely just like this but, if you'd like to ice it, beat the soft butter in a bowl until smooth and fluffy, then beat in the cream cheese and orange zest. Sweeten to taste with sieved icing sugar. Spread over the cake when it's cold.

© River Cottage

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Comments

  1. Love all you do Hugh but please put weight of carrot in cake as it really does make a difference.(& I am a carrot cake nut case )
    Posted by Patricia on 14/11/2009 00:31:05
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  2. ON TV AT THE MOMENT THERE IS ALWAYS VERY LITTLE TO WATCH THATS ANY GOOD , SO THANK YOU FOR RIVER COTTAGE, A VERY ENJOYABLE PROGRAME , INTERESTING & GREAT RECIPE IDEAS , LAST NIGHT PROGRAME WAS ONE OF THE BEST , WELL DONE & KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
    Posted by CLAIRE GREGORY on 13/11/2009 12:36:06
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  3. made this cake a few times and it so so delicious.u wont b dissapointed
    Posted by emma on 23/07/2009 11:27:33
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  4. Want to bake this cake, but I wonder if it will still taste good if I reduce the amount of oil, sugar and honey! Will give it a go anyway.
    Posted by nadia on 21/07/2009 18:20:51
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  5. I made this cake yesterday for my Mum's birthday and it went down a treat. My Dad raved about it and my hubby said it was the best cake I've ever made! I'd recommend it and will definitely be making it again.
    Posted by Kirsten on 20/07/2009 21:36:44
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  6. i love watching the series, the website is brill but, i cant find the rhubarb ice cream!
    Posted by sue swales on 18/06/2009 16:34:52
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  7. This looks a great recipe for carrot cake, and I want to make one for Father's Day. Thought it might be a good idea to double up and make large version as homemade cake rather like gold dust in our house, but bit confused about discrepancies between Hugh's verbal recipe and print version. How much flour should be used in double version - 400g as Hugh suggests or 600g (2 x 300g) Bicarb 2 teaspoons (Hugh) or 1 tsp (2 x 1/2) Is it a good idea to use that much oil? (600ml) Hugh suggests pouring over 1/2 jar warmed honey in doubled recipe, whereas doubling the recipe would mean 2 x 400g jar - a recipe for disaster according to Sue! Please help before disaster strikes!!
    Posted by Bel on 17/06/2009 02:05:45
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  8. Hi, Please Help!!! I am allergic to wheat, cornflour, cows dairy and potato, can i make the carrot andhoney cake with spelt and soya? Also, the cake using mashed potato - could this work with sweet potato or butternut squash?? Finally, where can i buy pearled spelt? Can you please email me??? would be very grateful. Many thanks,it was thanks to Hugh's programme that i have now mastered spelt bread rolls (they dont look or feelas light as the ones he made on the show, but they are nice toasted!!!) Lisa
    Posted by Lisa on 11/06/2009 14:58:33
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  9. Can I have the carrot recipe with 6 carrots and 6 eggs which was displayed on River Cottage programme on Channel 4 on 3rd June 09. Please email it to me. Many thanks Pam
    Posted by Pam on 11/06/2009 09:20:17
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  10. Hello.It so usefull,just what I where looking for, your carrot honey cake.I dont like to spened lots of time in the citchen,son seventheen birthsday tomorrow but friend come today.Lake of time,cake been ready in 40-45min.Lovely,perfeckt test,so surprising.Thank you very much.xxx
    Posted by galina on 06/06/2009 23:32:31
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  11. I saw this on tv and thought i had to try it - what a fabulous recipe, its delicious, so much so i've eaten nearly half of it already and it only been out the oven an hour!
    Posted by Simon on 06/06/2009 18:59:19
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  12. Not sure why you consider this cake to be healthier than regular carrot cake. There is an enormous amount of fat (I used half the amount in the recipe and it was still too much)and a lot of sugar with the honey as well.
    Posted by David on 05/06/2009 16:34:10
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  13. I cannot wait to bake this cake after watching your programme last night! Thank you for such an excellent programme. Paula
    Posted by Paula Olufsen on 04/06/2009 16:14:21
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