Carrot Cake

This is a great cake to make for any guests, but it is especially useful as it is vegan (adapted from The Vegan Society recipe). It is deliciously moist and sweet in flavour and can be thrown together in just a few minutes with pretty much store cupboard ingredients. It keeps brilliantly and will freeze as well. Careful cut into little cubes, it makes a great sweet canapé as well as a teatime treat.

Ingredients

170g raisins

280g self raising flour

170g soft brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

Pinch of salt

Zest of 1 orange

225g grated carrot

200ml vegetable oil

200ml water

0.5 tsp vanilla essence

For the icing:

7 tbsp icing sugar

1 tbsp fresh orange juice

Method

Heat oven to 190c

Line the base of a 23cm square tin with greaseproof or parchment paper.

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then stir in the remaining cake ingredients.

Smooth the top of the mixture and then bake for 35-40 minutes (don't let it brown too much on top). Turn the temperature down to 160c and cook for a further 20-25 minutes.

Cool the cake in the tin. Cut into small squares for the sweet canape.

Mix the icing sugar and orange juice together and either spread over the cake or pipe.

Keep wrapped for several days or freeze.