Super Seeded Carrot Cake Recipe

Makes

16 squares

Ingredients

150g raisins
80ml apple juice
butter, for greasing
115g/4oz self-raising wholemeal flour
115g/40z wholemeal spelt flour
1¼tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp mixed spice
2 eggs
150g/5oz soft light brown sugar
125ml sunflower oil
275g/9oz peeled carrots, grated
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
50g pecans, chopped
25g/1oz sunflower kernels
2tbsp pumpkin seeds roughly chopped
1½tbsp chia seeds
1½tbsp linseeds (flax seeds)
200g/7oz cream cheese
3tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Put the raisins into a small saucepan and cover with the apple juice. Bring to the boil, then let the raisins soak for about 30 minutes until plump.

2. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F/gas 3. Grease a 23cm/9inch square cake tin with butter and line with baking paper. In a large bowl, mix together both flours, the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice.

3. Beat the eggs and sugar together for about 2 minutes until foamy, then add the sunflower oil. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, then stir in the raisins with their soaking juice, the carrot, citrus zest, pecans, all of the sunflower kernels and 1tbsp each of the pumpkin and chia seeds and linseeds. Mix well – the batter will be quite stiff.

4. Scrape the batter into the tin and bake for one hour. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, remove the paper and allow to cool completely.

5. To make the topping, beat the cream cheese with a wooden spoon and add the icing sugar. Put in the fridge to firm up, then spread over the cake. Scatter with remaining seeds and cut into 16 squares.

Recipe courtesy of Grains Seeds and Legumes by Molly Brown, Hardie Grant

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