carrot cake to die for

SO, that heat wave is over, bring on that fall! And autumn equals comfort food, we looove comfort food. Fine food - with a great memory, the perfect texture and made with love - can make you feel incredibly happy. Carrot cake may not immediately have a memory with you, it is a lot less known here than in America, yet it scores high on the other points.

Carrot cake has a soft, dense texture, is sweet and fresh because of the cream cheese topping that you mix with lemon juice. The walnuts give the cake a nice bite and - together with the winter carrots - actually make it an autumn dish. The combination of all this screams: comfort food and so you can make carrot cake all year round. Moreover, you can do many things with it. This way you can make the cake more spicy to taste for autumn, or completely vegan, gluten-free or super healthy. Here's our favorite recipe (so far). Enjoy!

You can also make great cupcakes out of it!

Um... comfort food?

Comfort food, we love it. Why is that anyway? Nutritional psychologist Diana van Dijken-Bonestroo : "We get used to comfort food very early in our lives. As babies we are comforted with food. When we now look for food that comforts us, we often go back to those first familiar flavors. from then: fatty and sweet food.Think of chocolate, biscuits, pastries and ice cream.Or, if people don't like sweet, then at least a nice fatty bite.Comfort food often has to do with fond memories from your childhood. If your mother used to give you warm apple pie when you were not feeling well, chances are that as an adult you still like to eat apple pie to comfort yourself - or something similar. It can be apple pie, but also chili con carne or a plate of spicy noodles, food that literally makes you warm. What comfort food is, is different for everyone." - source: RTLnieuws

The recipe

This easy and tasty recipe comes from Hello Fresh . The most versatile and flexible food box in the Netherlands with delicious recipes including all the ingredients you need. Very simple, zero waste and surprising every week! Try ?

Ingredients

Number of portions: 10 people
Kcal: 328 per serving
Needed: cake tin (for a cake tin, but you can vary of course)

• 2 winter carrots
• 60 grams of raisins
• 1 lemon
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 400 gr farmer's cake mix
• 200 gr cream cheese
• 160 ml sunflower oil
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 160ml water
• 125 g walnuts (optional)
• pinch of salt

Necessities

• small bowl
• big bowl
• grater
• cake tin or mold 25 cm

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚ degrees. Bring 200 ml of water to a boil. Grate the carrot coarsely. Place the raisins in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Let them soak for 8-10 minutes. Roughly chop the walnuts. Grease a 25 cm long rectangular cake tin or line it with baking paper.
   
   
2. Pour the cake mix into a large bowl. Add 160 ml cold water and 160 ml sunflower oil and mix with a (hand) mixer or whisk until smooth.
   
   
3. Add the grated carrot, raisins, 3/4 of the walnuts and the cinnamon to the batter and mix well. Then pour the batter into the cake tin. Bake the cake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Meanwhile, grate the lemon zest and squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Mix the cream cheese with the lemon juice and zest, add 3 tbsp icing sugar, salt to taste and beat with a fork until fluffy.
   
   
4. Check after 45 minutes whether the cake is ready by pricking it with a skewer. Does he come out clean? Then the cake is ready. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool completely. Spread the top with the creamcheese, sprinkle with the rest of the walnuts and cut the cake into slices.

TIP 1 : The carrot cake can be stored in the fridge for 2 to 3 days, preferably in a closed box

TIP 2 : grate the lemon before you squeeze it and also stir it through the cream cheese for extra acidity

TIP 3 : if you bake the carrot cake in the fall, you can make it a bit more spicy. Experiment with spices such as ginger powder, ground nutmeg and cloves.

Are you going to work with it? Let us know with a comment :-)

Author - Mariko Naber
Mariko is the happy brain behind Happlify. Together with partner Mark she runs Sell your stuff online, branding agency Loaded ink BNO and Atelier Naber . She loves feel good, random acts of kindness, meatballs, chocolate mousse, family time, zee, piña colada, sugar & spice and everything nice 💛