Carrot Cake

I'm trying to empty and clear the fridge and the pantry of some food stuff, which is a much welcomed move by my family who have been nagging that "my" food items were taking up so much space in the fridge. Among the things, I had an unopened small box of cream cheese and some tablespoons of hazelnuts, and the first thing that flashed through my mind when I saw these ingredients was carrot cake. I haven't had carrot cake in years now, so I decided to bake it. I made it with frosting but it is tasty without frosting as well (perhaps even healthier).

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup nuts
1/2 cup desiccated coconut flakes
1/2 tbs ginger
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting:
50 g soft butter
1 1/2 cup icing sugar (adjust)
1 tsk vanilla extract/vanilla sugar
100 g cream cheese
1 tsp lime juice
Chopped hazelnuts (as required)

Method:
Then mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add flour (putting aside 2 tables spoon), baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt together and put aside. Grate the carrots and chop the nuts and the ginger roughly. Mix the carrots, nuts, desiccated coconut flakes, ginger with 2 tbs of the flour to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with the sugar until light and fluffy. Drizzle in the vegetable oil. Fold in the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Now, add the carrot-nut mixture and gently fold to blend. Butter the sides of a loaf pan. Place a parchment paper on the bottom. Spread some fine bread crumbles in the loaf pan. You can skip this step if you have non-stick baking pan. Spoon in the cake mixture. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 150-175 C (300-350 F) for about 1 hour or so, until it is firm and the inserted skewer comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Then turn it out. Let the cake cool completely before icing the cake.

For the frosting, whisk together all the above mentioned ingredients and spread it evenly on top of the cake and garnish with chopped hazel nuts or some other nut.

This cake was featured on Midweek Fiesta hosted by Amy of Food Corner. Thank for the badge Amy.