Sudha's Carrot Cake recipe

Having spent a panicked few minutes looking for the pieces of paper I scribbled this recipe down on, I thought I would take the wise precaution of putting it on the web so I can find it whenever I want. Little pieces of paper go walkabouts with me and I can't call my parents up every time I want to bake...

So here it is. We (my family) got this recipe from a friend and it's divine. You'd better like sultanas and the nuts are, as always, optional but this is a moist (this is the only time it's appropriate to use that word), dense (but not heavy) cake. Enjoy!

2C shredded carrot
1C sultanas
1 1/2C sugar
1 1/2C water
1/3C (125g) butter
1C plain flour
1 1/2t baking soda
1/2t of each salt, cloves, spices*
1C whole wheat flour
1t vanilla essence
1C chopped walnuts

• combine in a pan carrot, sugar, sultanas, water and butter.
• bring to boil and simmer for 5 mins.
• leave to cool**
• sift plain flour, baking soda, salt and spices in to wet mixture
• add whole wheat flour
• add vanilla and walnuts and mix well

Cook for at 180˚C for 35 mins or until cooked***

Ice as you please but I have found the best one is:
finely grate a lemon rind, add a tub of cream cheese, make sure it's soft then add in as much icing sugar as you need to get the right consistency. Vague instructions I know but I'm a handful of this, pinch of that kind of cooker. ;-)

*I just put in 1/2 of each cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
**this will take at least 20 min depending on your pot. I never leave it to cool totally because I'm too lazy
*** I usually find this is about right although more towards the 40min mark depending on your oven. It can pay to check it at 30mins to be safe