Hydrangea carrot cake

When I saw this cake over at I am baker I had to make it. My grandma loves hydrangeas, so with mother's day coming up, I thought this would be the perfect present. For a first attempt I think it turned out beautifully (if I don't say so myself). If you're ever after simple yet super stylish cake decorating ideas I am baker is the blog to visit.

Make this cake for your mother or grandmother on Sunday and they won't be disappointed.

I used a carrot cake recipe for my hydrangea cake. You can use any cake you like though. The original recipe says to use a half-sphere cake tin as well but I just used a regular round tin.

If you're making your own cake, skip down to the icing section, otherwise in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the oil, sugar and eggs until thick and creamy.

Remove the bowl from the stand and stir through the walnuts, carrot and sultanas.

Sift the rest of the dry ingredients into the bowl and stir them through.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake the cake at 160C/320F fan-forced for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Leave the cooked cake in the tin to cool for 5 minutes.

Remove the cake from the tin and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling it's time to make the icing. Use a regular buttercream (I added a little cream cheese) and separate it into 3 bowls.

Colour the icings a little at a time until you reach the desired colour.

Cover the cake with one layer of plain icing and leave it to dry then it's time for decorating. This is the icing tip that you want to use.

Head over to I am baker if you don't understand but you basically draw the petals onto the cake in a sweeping motion. One thing that helped me was holding the tip a little way out from the cake and drawing each flower really fast. The beauty of this cake is if you mess one flower up you can just cover it with another one.

Keep going until you have a beautiful hydrangea cake. Enjoy!

Recipe

Hydrangea carrot cake

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Author: Recipe adapted from Women's Weekly 'Cook' book and icing decoration learned at [url href="http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/" target="_blank"]I am Baker[/url]

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Ingredients

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 ⅓ cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups firmly packed coarsely grated carrot
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 ½ cups self-raising flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoon mixed spice
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon almond meal
• 2 tablespoon sultanas

ICING

• 60 g 2oz light cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon light spread
• 2 cups icing sugar

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 160C/320F fan-forced. Grease and line the bottom of a round spring-form tin.
• Beat the oil, sugar and eggs together in the bowl of an electric mixer until thick and creamy.
• Take the bowl off the stand and using a wooden spoon, mix through the carrot, walnuts and sultanas.
• Stir through the rest of the dry ingredients after sifting them.
• Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 1h 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
• When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and leave it in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the icing, blend the cream cheese and low fat spread until smooth and creamy. Add the lemon juice then gradually add the icing sugar until you reach the desired consistency.
• Give the cake a crumb layer of icing and leave to set.

Decorate the cake with piped-on icing. You can use a normal butter cream for the decorations.

Have you made this recipe? I'd love to hear what you think. Tag me on Instagram @clairekcreations