Carrot and Orange Loaf Cakes

Hiya lovelies. It's about time I posted a cake recipe don't ya think?! (In my brand new sparkling oven - with a light!!!) Eeeekkk. I know. It's been a long time coming, and guess what it feels almost kinda weird being able to make such a luxury as a cake, it's like i've been trained into by passing/ignoring any recipe of the sort that involves using an oven. And now the oven door has opened up a whole new baking world of possibilities. (Soz for being so dramatic there...I'm just so excited.)

It's all just good timing as well with the Great British Bake Off starting once again next Wednesday (August 5th,) I can't wait to see all the new bakers and challenges for this year, I'll be able to bake along too whenever I fancy as it's the school holidays, well, sixth form holidays!! Yaaayy. Doesn't quite have the same ring really does it? 

Anyway, ages ago I bought some cute mini loaf tins, this was all pre-oven breakage, then that happened and I've been dying to try them out ever since. FINALLY I can make these carrot and orange loaf cakes!
The orange hit isn't too strong as that's not what I wanted here, just enough to get a subtle but zesty flavour. The icing is also made with a tiny bit of the orange juice and for a nice bit of deco a couple of orange strands. Lovely. 

I added some walnuts to the cake mix too but you can always leave them out or swap them for another kind. I can't tell you how light yet moist they are, so the loaves will definitely keep for a few days in an air tight container, pfftt that's if they manage to last that long. Yeah right.

If you don't have mini loaf tins you could buy some disposable, oven bakeable mini cases from most big supermarkets or just regular cupcake cases, they'll still taste just as good whatever shape. 

Carrot  and  Orange  Loaf  Cakes

Makes 9 

Ingredients

1 orange 150g softened butter + extra for greasing (or cake release spray) 150g light brown sugar 175g grated carrot 2 eggs 200g self raising flour 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp ground mixed spice 55g chopped walnuts
To finish: about 2-3 tbsp acacia honey 90g icing sugar 1 tbsp juice from the orange orange zest strands

Method

Preheat your oven to 170°C/ 325 °F/ gas 3. Line the base of 9 mini loaf tins with a strip of greaseproof paper and then grease lightly with butter or cake release spray. 
Grate the orange rind, leaving some as zest strands for decoration later. Put the finely grated orange rind into a large mixing bowl along with the butter, sugar, grated carrot, eggs, flour, baking powder, mixed spice and walnuts. Finally, cut the orange in half and squeeze about 1 tbsp of the juice into the bowl. Mix everything well until thoroughly combined. 
Distribute the cake mix evenly among the loaf tins and then bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until when a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and whilst still hot, quickly brush over each loaf a bit of honey to give a nice shine and then place back in the oven for 2 minutes. Remove from the oven again and then leave to cool in their tins for 5 minutes. Carefully transfer the loaves to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, in a small bowl stir the icing sugar together with about 1 tbsp of orange juice strained through a sieve and mix to a smooth, gloopy dropping consistency. Once the cakes are cooled, spoon over a little icing with a board underneath the wire rack to catch any drops. Place a couple of orange zest strands over the centre of each and leave the icing to set.