Venetian Carrot Cake

For the recent Allotment Show refreshments were provided and I made some carrot cake- I used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe (http://hummingbirdbakery.com/)  it was delicious and moist, but I also came across a recipe from Nigella for a gluten free carrot cake- and decided to give this a try as well , (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gluten-free_and_11807 ) as it has no flour there are lots of ground almonds alongside the carrots and sultanas in rum! Instead of butter the cake also uses olive oil- it specifies regular olive oil, as I only had extra virgin oil I thought I would give some cold pressed rape seed oil a try- on the bottle it suggests using in place of butter in baking.

The results were delicious- not a light sponge but a fairly dense and rich cake- I would make it again for the right occasion , but the Hummingbird recipe is lovely as an everyday easy carrot cake - I made it as a tray bake with a small amount of the cream cheese frosting on top which worked brilliantly and was much easier to eat outdoors than the layered cake in the book.