With a few spare carrots floating around we thought about using some of them to make a carrot-based version of a Christmas cake. Lynn found a recipe on the internet, and after a brief shopping trip headed for the kitchen with the following result.

Christmas Cake 2014

250ml veg oil
350g carrots, grated
75g macadamia nuts, chopped
75g pecan nuts, chopped
170g mixed dried berries / cherries (I used lots of dried cranberries)
100g ready to eat dried figs, apricots and prunes, chopped (I left out the figs and used dates instead)
300g golden granulated sugar
300g self-raising flour
1tsp mixed spice
1tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2tsp baking powder
4 large eggs, beaten

Pre-heat oven to 160 deg fan. Grease and line a 20cm round loose bottomed cake tin

Combine oil, carrots, nuts fruit and sugar. Sift and add flour, spices and baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Add eggs and mix well
Put into cake tin and level. Bake for 2 – 2.25 hours until skewer comes out clean. Cover with foil after 1.25 hours to stop top browning too much.