Spicy carrot cake with cream cheese icing

Ingredients

cake

• 2 tbsp milled flaxseed
• 120ml sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 large carrots, grated (200g net)
• 200g caster sugar
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 250g plain flour
• 1¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 50g pine nuts or walnuts, chopped

frosting

• 300g cream cheese
• 2 limes, zested, and juiced to get 2½ tbsp juice
• 90g icing sugar

Directions

1.​ Heat the oven to ​200C (180​C fan)/390F/gas 6 and line a 23cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper. 2. In a large bowl​,​ stir the flaxseeds ​i​nto four tablespoons (60ml) of warm water, and set aside for ​f​ive minutes​.​ Add the oil, vinegar, oat milk, vanilla paste, carrots, sugar and salt​, mix really well ​to combine, then put to one side. 3. In another large bowl​, ​w​hisk the flour, baking powder, bicarb, spices and nuts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry,​ and mix ​really well ​– don’t be alarmed ​b​y how​ dry or stiff the batter is. 4. Spoon ​the mixture evenly into the baking tin, ​then shuffl​e​ the tin about to even everything out.​ Bake for 35 minutes​, or until a skewer comes out clean​,​ then leave the cake to cool before removing from the tin. 5. ​Just before serving, ​and when the cake is completely cool, make the frosting. ​P​ut the cream​ cheese, lime juice, half the zest and ​the icing sugar ​i​n a bowl and mix ​w​ith a fork until nice and whippy.​ Spread ​this all over the top of the cake​,​ then sprinkle over the remaining lime zest, slice and serve.