This is a very simple recipe and the idea of mixing in a can of pineapple seems odd, but it works. It’s what makes the cake so moist. Anything with as much fruit and moisture as this cake would normally sink in the middle, which is why it’s best baked in a ring tin.
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Serves: 12–16
Ingredients
Cake batter:
- 450g plain flour
- 440g caster sugar*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 1 cup undrained canned crushed pineapple
- 2 cups grated carrot
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or mixed nuts
Butter cream icing:
- 125g butter
- 240g pure icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon sherry
- a few drops vanilla essence
- chopped walnuts, to decorate
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Generously grease a deep 22cm ring tin.
Sift the flour, sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda together into a large bowl. Add the pineapple, carrot, eggs, oil and vanilla, and beat until combined. Stir in the nuts.
Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Ice the cooled cake with lemon butter cream icing, and scatter with chopped walnuts.
* Our appetite for sugar has decreased over the years, so feel free to reduce this quantity.
Recipe taken from Baking by Margaret Fulton
Finally, from the doyenne of Australian cookery comes the ultimate baking book for Australian kitchens. A collection of Margaret’s best sweet and savoury baking recipes, Margaret Fulton’s Baking is the perfect accompaniment to any home kitchen and includes everything from sourdough bread to layered sponge cake. With more than 250 recipes plus variations and hints and tips, this is a classic baking book essential to every kitchen. Chapters include Breads, Cakes, Cupcakes and Muffins, Biscuits, Slices and Pastry. Margaret Fulton’s recipes are triple-tested and are suitable for both beginner cooks and experienced bakers.
You can purchase Baking at Hardie Grant Books.
Also read: Low-fat Spicy Teacake
