Happy Birthday Mathilda! (and carrot cake recipe)

My last post about my C-Section kind of put a  downer on my blog, hence why I think I haven't posted for a while.  So, it's a bit late, but Mathilda turned 1 nearly a month ago (19th May).  Such a huge milestone for us!  And how much she's changed and blossomed in 12 months.  This post is to celebrate her birthday.

Here's a few photos from her special day (we went to Bristol Zoo)...

 

I made her a carrot cake for her birthday cake.  I wanted to make something vaguely healthy as she's still very little and has the rest of her life to eat junk food.  I thought I'd share the recipe, as it turned out to be a very delicious cake and was quite easy to make!

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:

180g wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
180g light muscovado sugar
150ml sunflower oil
2 large eggs
200g carrots, coarsley grated
85g raisins

For the Frosting: 

1 lime

200g cream cheese
100g unsalted butter, softened
85-100g unrefined icing sugar

Method

1. For the cake: preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line one deep 20cm cake tin.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in the cinnamon and nutmeg.

3. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to whisk together the sugar, sunflower oil and eggs until smooth.

4. With a large metal spoon, fold in the carrots and raisins, then fold in the flour and spice mixture until well combined.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, place on baking tray and bake until the cake is golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. For me it took about an hour.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

5. For the frosting: squeeze the juice from the lime.

6. Beat the cream cheese in a bowl with the softened butter, icing sugar. Add the lime juice slowly, beating the mixture continuously to prevent it from curdling. Add to taste.

7. ISpread the frosting over the top.

8. Serve chilled.