These mini carrot cake squares are packed with delicious ingredients like mixed spince, bananas and walnuts and topped with cream cheese and orange rind.
Ingredients
- 225g (8oz) self-raising flour
- 2tsp baking powder
- 1tsp ground mixed spice
- 150g (5oz) soft light brown sugar
- 100g (4oz) carrots, grated
- 75g (3oz) walnuts, chopped
- 2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
- 2 medium eggs
- 150ml (¼ pt) corn or sunflower oil
- 300g tub Philadelphia soft cheese
- 30ml (2tbsp) caster sugar
- Finely grated rind of 1 orange
- 15ml (1tbsp) fresh orange juice
- Shredded orange rind, to decorate
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4). Lightly grease an 18 x 27cm (7 x 10½ in) tin and line with non-stick baking parchment.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and mixed spice into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar, carrots, walnuts and banana. Add the eggs and oil, and beat until blended.
- Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 mins until firm - a skewer inserted into the cake should come out clean. Turn out on to a cooling rack and remove the lining paper. Leave to cool completely.
- To make the icing place the cheese, sugar, orange rind and juice in a bowl and beat together until smooth. Spread over the cake and swirl with the back of a spoon. Decorate with orange rind and cut into squares.
Top Tip for making Spiced carrot cake squares
Top tip: For extra spice, try adding a cinnamon stick to the mix.