Carrot Cake with Buttercream Frosting

 Before I begin I want to say no judging allowed! There is no such thing as a perfect circle, or not when it comes to this bake anyways. I've never baked a carrot cake before and fancied a challenge, so what better way to spend my Saturday afternoon.

For the cake you will need:
- 4 eggs
- 225g butter
- 225g soft brown sugar
- 175g of plain flour
- 350g carrots (peeled and grated)
- Grated zest of 1/2 an orange
- 1 tbsp of lemon juice
- 100g walnuts (chopped)
- 50g of ground almonds
- 2 tsp of baking powder
{I didn't use the walnuts or almonds due to not having them in my kitchen cupboards, so you can adjust to your taste preferences / cupboard stock}

For the icing you will need:
- 100g of softened butter
- 275g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp of milk{Note to self: Make sure you have enough icing sugar in the flat before you begin}Method:
1. Heat your oven to 180 degrees and line your baking tin(s) with parchment. 
2. Separate your eggs, not as easy as it sounds, and and beat the egg whites until they are stiff.
3. In a separate bowl beat the butter and sugar until it's light and creamy- a very satisfying job.
4. Then beat in the egg yolks, orange zest and lemon juice followed by the dry ingredients.
5. Fold in the carrots and then fold in the beaten egg. (If you're not sure what I mean by folding then YouTube has some great tutorials)
6. Spoon into the baking tin(s) and bake in the oven for 1 hour ish. Our recipe said 1 and a half hours but it was ready after 60 beautifully-smelling minutes.
7. Once the time is up, take it out of the oven and leave to cool before icing!
8. Enjoy with a cup of tea, your feet up and your favourite movie on the TV.

Check back soon for the next #cookingwithBeth installment.