Healthy carrot cake with walnuts and raisins recipe

Teachers are human, too, right? We need to be fed and we need to feed our families. We need to feed our bodies before we can feed our minds, so, here's a healthy and tasty recipe of something to give us the energy and motivation we require to face a classroom full of anxious learners!

The last time I made a good carrot cake was decades ago and ever since we moved to where we are now, I don't think I've managed to get it right the few times I'd tried to make one - you know, different oven and all that... Anyway, I felt the urge to dust the cake tins and the spatulas about two weeks ago and although the result looked good, the taste and texture wasn't quite right. I circulated a photo of it on the net and it proved to be rather popular. I knew then that I had to do another sooner than later, so I made some adjustments and re-attempted.

I can tell you how wonderful it is, but who will believe me? Here's the recipe for you to try! You may need a couple of attempts to tweak the ingredients or the time of baking to suit your circumstances. Let me know!

Ingredients:

75g seedless raisins, soaked in hot water (or rum/brandy, if you prefer)

380g carrots, grated (2 large ones as seen in the image below)

150g honey (amount depends on how sweet you want the cake to be)

200g wholemeal flour

150g walnuts, coarsely grounded

200g olive oil (or any vegetable oil of your choice)

4 eggs (in the image, you see a set of twin yolks)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves

vanilla essence

For these and more, click here.

Procedure:

1. Heat the oven to 175ºC.
2. Mix the wet ingredients (oil, honey, eggs)  in a large bowl.
3. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, walnuts, baking powder, spices) in a separate bowl.
4. Drain the raisins and add to the dry ingredients, little by little, mixing as you add them.
5. Add this dry mix to the wet, again, mixing as you add.
6. Add the grated carrots and a few drops of vanilla essence.
7. Mix well.
8. Pour into a greased and floured cake tin.
9. Bake on a lower rack in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes.
10. At this point, the cake will probably start to crack, but will also be sufficiently brown. In this case, place a sheet of aluminium foil over it. Don't burn your hands!
11. Leave it in the oven for another 15 minutes.
12. Turn the oven off, but leave the cake in there for a further 10 minutes or so before taking it out.
13. Leave to cool.
14. When cool, slide a thin spatula along the edges to loosen the cake before attempting to remove it from the mould.





15. Slice and serve. If you prefer, you can sprinkle some icing sugar, or accompany it with some honey or chocolate sauce.
16. Enjoy!