Spiced Carrot Cake
"You can use more orange juice instead of the orange liqueur if you prefer. The soaking time of the apricots is not included in the recipe timing."
photo by Engrossed
- Ready In:
- 1hr 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 17
- Yields:
-
1 cake
- Serves:
- 12
ingredients
- 1 medium orange
- 3⁄4 cup finely chopped dried apricot
- 1 1⁄2 cups plain flour
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1⁄8 teaspoon allspice
- 1⁄8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup grated carrot
- 3⁄4 cup chopped pecans
- 3 large eggs
- 1⁄2 cup sunflower oil (or canola)
- 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
- 7 ounces cream cheese
- 1⁄3 cup confectioners' sugar
- 5 -6 pecan halves, to decorate (optional)
directions
- Zest the orange, cover and set aside for the frosting.
- Juice the orange, add the chopped apricots and mix with the orange juice, leave to soak for at least 3 hours.
- When ready to make the cake, preheat the oven to 300F and line the base of a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour together with the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and the baking soda into a mixing bowl.
- Add the brown sugar, chopped pecans, carrots and the apricots with the juice, (reserve 2 tablespoons of the orange juice), mix well.
- Beat together the eggs with the oil, add to the mix and mix again.
- Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50-60 minutes.
- Test with a wooden skewer whether the cake is done, (it should come out clean and dry), otherwise cook a bit longer.
- Turn the cake out of the tin and let it cool until slightly warm.
- Mix the two tablespoons of Grand Marnier and the two tablespoons of the reserved orange juice, return the cake to the tin, poke holes in the top and drizzle the liquid over to soak up the juices.
- Beat together the cream cheese, confectioners sugar and the orange zest, taste if you find it sweet enough, if not, add more sugar.
- Take the cake out of the tin, remove parchment paper and spread the frosting on the top.
- Decorate with the halved pecans.
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Reviews
-
I found this cake to be too mushy, I had to leave it in my oven for half an hour longer to dry out. Not enough spices to call it "spiced" and the apricots were bitter (not a fan of apricots).<br/>Even my sister was disappointed in this carrot cake. -
This cake is delicious and I especially like that it isn't loaded with raisins like some other carrot cake recipes. The apricots really add to it. Soaking the cake with liqueur after baking really adds to it, too. Two thumbs up! -
This is a very nice carrot cake! Moist, dense and full of apricot orange flavor. I think the frosting could be improved. I had to add twice the sugar and it still is very plain. This is one of those cakes that is much better the next day. I baked mine in a regular loaf pan as I wasn't sure what a 2lb loaf pan was. It baked for 70 minutes. I had no trouble getting it out of the pan. I speeded the apricot soak process by microwaving it for 2 minutes. I used Cointreau instead of Grand Marnier because it was what I had. With a better frosting this cake could be outstanding! -
This was a lovely carrot cake. For one thing I loved that it was baked in a loaf pan and for another I loved it's moist texture. This is a real winner in my books!
-
I liked this entry and I also like it being baked in a loaf pan. The smaller size fits my family better. I found this recipe closer to my idea of a carrot cake and loved the inclusion of the apricots. Good luck in the contest!
see 2 more reviews
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
PetsRus
Leiden, Zuid Holland
Hello, my name is Bonnie and I am a very beautiful cat as you can see if you look at the picture at the top of this page.... What??.. I am supposed to talk about you??? But it says here: About Me!! Well all right then ......
My mom is Dutch and has moved to England in October 2007, after living 15 years in the Netherlands with my English dad. They don’t have any human children and “created” their own family, which means I have to share them with Hannah, she is a 6 years old tortie cat, Abby the dog, she is a 9 year old Beagle, and a one year old black Miniature Pincher named Poppy, I refuse to tell you my age but I am a georgious lilac British Shorthair cat!!
It is obvious she adores pets just by looking at her name she uses on Zaar (many on Zaar call her Pets or Petsie Poo), her name in real life is Annelies and that is a common Dutch name.
My mom always liked to cook, but since she joined Zaar it got out of control, and it doesn’t help that she is disorganized. Printed recipes everywhere in the house, the recipe binders have got bigger and just between you and me, her hips too!!!
I have lived in Holland all of my life until now, but they lived in several different countries/places:- desert and coastal Oman, up North and West in Holland, Vancouver-Canada, Aberdeen- Scotland and in Norway they lived in Bergen and Oslo. We have all moved together to England, as you can see I’ve already learnt the language!
I heard her say to Dad that this is the last time she moved to another country...she's had it with moving from one place to another! ( its her age...she's getting grumpy)
Mom is 55 years old but I always hear her say that the date of her birthday does not mean that much to her, the date of her cancer anniversary is more important, because so far she is a survivor.
Besides cooking she has other interests too, crafts, gardening and soap making.
She likes Zaar and is one of the hosts on the German-Benelux Forum here on RecipeZaar.
She would like to thank everybody who tries and comments on the recipes she has posted on Recipezaar, your feedback is very much appreciated.
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