The King of Carrot Cakes

                    The Master of Good Hope cuts the first slice of Wilby's 
'                                    'Welcome Home' carrot cake

There are the ordinary loaf-shaped carrot cakes that you get in cafes, which tend to be a bit dry, contain an unsubtle amount of ground cloves, have no walnuts, and are topped with thin, flaky white water icing. Then there is Digby Law's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, which is an entirely superior carrot cake - moist with three cups of carrot and two cups of oil, gently spiced with cinnamon and vanilla, generously stuffed with walnuts, and covered in a thick cholesterol catastrophe and flavour triumph of creamy cheesey icing.

I have been baking this carrot cake and no other ever since I found the recipe in Digby Law's seminal A New Zealand Vegetable Cookbook. First published in 1978, reprinted every year for a decade, and still being printed in the twenty-first century, Law's book - the first substantial book-length treatment of vegetable cookery in New Zealand history - filled a huge gap in NZ cookery resources. It is still making a big contribution to better vegetable cooking, both here and overseas, as it contains so many excellent recipes. They are conveniently arranged alphabetically by vegetable, from Asparagus to Watercress, with nine or ten recipes per vegetable.

It is a wonderful book for ringing the changes on garden surpluses (even silverbeet) and also useful for finding ways of making the least popular vegetables palatable. (I could almost like broad beans served in Avgolemono Sauce, or Braised Brussels Sprouts.)

But enough on cookbooks - let's cut to the cake.


      DIGBY LAW'S CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 C peanut oil
[or other light-flavoured oil - I use Lupi extra light olive oil]
2 C raw sugar
4 eggs
1 t vanilla essence
2 C wholemeal flour
1 and 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 scant t salt
3 C grated carrot
1 C chopped walnuts
2 t baking soda

Method

Grease and flour a cake tin (22 cm diameter or more).
Heat the oven to 160 degrees C.
Whisk together the oil and sugar.
Beat the eggs lightly, and beat in the vanilla essence.
Add the eggs and vanilla to the oil and sugar and whisk together.
Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt together into a large bowl.
Add the grated carrot and walnuts.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together.
At the last minute mix in the baking soda.
Pour the mixture into the tin, and bake at 55 minutes or until cooked.
(It is a very moist cake, so it will be soft, but a skewer should come out clean.)
When the cake is cool ice it with Cream Cheese Icing.

Cream Cheese Icing

Beat together
1 large (250g) container of regular cream cheese,
3/4 C sifted icing sugar,
1 t vanilla essence,
and
1/4 C melted butter
until smooth.

                                 Wilby tucks into his slice of carrot cake