Rustic Carrot Cake

This is my first attempt at carrot cake and I wanted to make a good one rather than going on a trial with many recipes. I was looking for one that must definitely be moist, without pineapples or raisins (my husband's not into raisins), does not require a weighing scale (as I was making it after work on a Monday and I like cakes which doesn't require long prep time), not layered (as it requires more baking time and lots of frosting) yet tastes awesome....well, there's a lot of criteria to meet, isn't it...
After going through endless carrot cake recipes online, I saved a few and decided to modify and make my own version using these as the basics....and the end result : moist, flavourful, totally yummilicious carrot cake...just like I wanted it to be and I know this recipe will be a keeper ;)
So, here goes....my Rustic Carrot Cake.

The frosting wasn't setting..maybe due to less amount of icing sugar or a softer cream cheese that I used. So, I'll give you the carrot cake recipe...feel free to make ur own frosting as I'm yet to find a perfect frosting recipe.

Ingredients :

3 carrots (grated finely)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar (brown castor sugar mixed with dark brown sugar)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4  cup canola oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain fat free yogurt
3 eggs
chopped walnuts / raisins (optional)

Method :

Preheat oven 180 degrees celcius. Prepare an 8 or 9 inch round pan. Grease the sides and place baking paper at the bottom of pan. (I used a 9 inch non-stick springform pan)
Beat eggs and sugar using a hand held mixer. Meanwhile, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, salt and keep aside.
Add in the oil and yogurt slowly to the egg mixture. Once well mixed, fold in the flour mixture to the wet mixture in 3 batches (u do not need the hand mixer for this).
Then add in the grated carrot and vanilla extract. Mix only till well combined.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-32 minutes or till skewer inserted comes out clean.
Let cake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Remove cake, frost with cream cheese frosting, sprinkle toasted pecans or walnuts and serve.
(I baked the cake a day earlier and once it was cool, refrigerated it. I frosted the cake the next day before serving).

And the expression on my friends' faces...priceless ;)

Linked this to : http://uk-rasoi.blogspot.co.uk/ and Whats With My Cuppa