Dairy-Free Citrus Cake

There's a few flavours in life that I can't live without. Chocolate. Cinnamon. Citrus. Obviously I can't combine all three flavours in one cake - that would just be wrong. So this cake is citrus. And dairy-free. And super soft. And super yummy.

In the ingredients, I've listed citrus zest and juice. Personally, I've made this cake using just oranges and a combination of orange and lemon. There's also no reason this wouldn't work with limes or mandarins so play about with the flavours to suit your own taste.

Dairy-Free Citrus Cake

2/3 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs (use 3 if they're only small)
4 tspn citrus zest, finely grated (If you love a strong citrus flavour, add an extra tspn or 2!)
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup citrus juice

Preheat the oven to 190C (or 170C if you have a fan-forced oven). Grease and line the tin with baking paper. (Make sure you line your tin completely - bottom and sides - as this cake is uber soft and may stick otherwise.)

Using electric beaters, beat the sugar and eggs together for a couple of minutes until the mixture is thick and frothy. Beat in the citrus zest and olive oil.

Stir in the flour, milk and juice then pour the mixture into the cake tin.

Bake the cake for 50 minutes ot until it's golden on top. Test it's baked through by inserting a skewer - if should come out cleanly with only moist crumbs sticking to it.

Let the cake cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes then turn it onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Finish by dusting it with icing sugar.

Carrot Cake

Apologies for the prolonged break in recipe blogging - we were busy moving house but we've now settled into our new place and regular programming shall now continue.

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I've always been a big fan of carrot cake ever since I was a kid (although Mum was more into making melting moments and jam tarts) and I've finally found the ultimate recipe. It's moist, packed with flavour and contains a vegetable (always a bonus, it helps to cancel out all the sugar. ;p )



Carrot Cake

1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups soft brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup chopped walnuts
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
2 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1 1/2 tspn bi-carb soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

In a large bowl beat together the vegetable oil, brown sugar and eggs for 5 minutes or until the mixture looks creamy.

With a wooden spoon stir in the grated carrot, walnuts and fruit zest then stir in flour, bi-carb and cinnamon.

Tip the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the tin then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely before icing it.

Cream Cheese Icing

40g butter
120g soft cream cheese
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
2 cups icing sugar

Cream the butter for a minute then add the cream cheese, vanilla and 1 cup of icing sugar. Beat the icing with an electric mixer for 4 minutes then add the second cup of icing sugar and beat for a further 4 minutes. Spread the icing over the cake then sprinkle with some brown sugar or a little more cinnamon.

Enjoy a really big slice of this cake with a cup of tea or coffee. :)