Food Around the World - Spiced Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is one of the easiest things to make and most delicious to eat. I have several recipes in my repertoire, but this one closely resembles the best carrot cake I have eaten, in Norway. It is the walnuts and spices that set it apart from my other recipes. Whilst carrot cake is not strictly of Norwegian origin, they enjoy it and make it equally well.

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

¾ cup vegetable oil

1t vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups flour

2t baking powder

1T cinnamon

1T ground ginger

pinch of cloves

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of ground cardamom

½ t salt

2 cups finely grated carrots

1 cup chopped walnuts

½ cup dried blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Sift the dry ingredients together.
Beat the sugar and eggs together. Add the oil and beat again, then add the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients a little at a time and mix in. Add the carrots and blue berries. Pour into a greased spring form ring tin. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the cake. Allow the cake to cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from the tin.

Icing
2T melted butter
4T cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
1t vanilla

Mix the ingredients together and pour over the carrot cake once cooled.