• Annica has a reputation for beautiful cakes for special occasions. She also offers catering services and runs Annica’s in The Michelangelo Towers in Sandton, Johannesburg. For more information visit www.annicasdeli.co.za, email [email protected] or call 011-884-9445.

    Low-GI carrot cake

    Serves: 1 cake
    Cooking Time: 2 hrs 20 mins

    Ingredients

    • Cake

    • 4 large eggs
    • 200ml olive oil
    • 380g sugar
    • 200g cake flour
    • 5ml (1 tsp) bicarbonate of soda
    • 5ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
    • 5ml (1 tsp) ground nutmeg
    • 180g raisins
    • 500g carrots, grated
    • 3 red apples, grated
    • 150g oat bran
    • a pinch of ground cloves
    • Topping

    • 50ml butter, at room temperature
    • 60g cream cheese
    • 2 – 3 drops vanilla extract
    • 240g icing sugar
    • 50g pecan nuts, chopped and roasted
    • dried fruit, to garnish

    Instructions

    1

    Preheat the oven to 160°C and lightly grease a 30cm cake tin.

    2

    For the cake, mix the eggs, oil and sugar together. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the spices, and mix to combine.

    3

    In a separate bowl, mix the raisins, carrots, apples, oat bran and cloves. Add it to the flour mixture and stir to combine.

    4

    Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour. Cover with foil and bake for another hour. The cake is cooked if a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. If needed, cover with foil and bake for a further 15 minutes. Leave to cool, then turn the cake out onto a wire rack.

    5

    For the topping, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract together with an electric beater until smooth. With the beater running at a low speed, gradually add the icing sugar. Beat until smooth.

    6

    Spread the icing over the cake and sprinkle with the pecan nuts. Garnish with dried fruit. Keep the cake refrigerated for up to 3 days.