Carrot Cake with Fresh Pineapple and Dark Raisins

There was just under half of a very large fresh pineapple sitting in the fridge, waiting to be eaten or cooked with. I went one better than that, and turned some of it into carrot cake...moist, sweet and bursting with flavour.

Combine the following:

1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1 cup dark raisins
1/2 cup apple juice

Leave to soak while you prepare the rest of the cake batter ingredients.

Measure out the dry ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon







Heat the oven to 350F, and lightly grease a bundt pan.

In an electric mixer, cream

1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar


Add in 3 eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl down in between additions.

When the eggs are incorporated, add all the dry ingredients to the bowl.

Mix on a low speed until just combined. The mixture will be quite stiff and dry looking.

Add the carrots, pineapple, raisins and apple juice and mix until just incorporated. The batter will now be smooth and creamy, with colourful bits of fruit and carrots.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean, about 45 - 50 minutes.





Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes before unmoulding and serving. This is yummy eaten warm or cold, for breakfast, snack or dessert! Enjoy!

• If you don't have fresh pineapple, use canned. Either drain the juice and use in place of all or part of the apple juice, or reserve it for another use.
• Leave the peel on the carrots, just give them a good wash.
• If you want a lighter looking cake, use golden raisins, or chopped dried apricots instead of dark raisins.
• You can leave the raisins out altogether, but the batter is a lot looser and takes longer to bake. You can replace the raisins with extra carrot, or even grated apple.
• Try using a combination of carrot, zucchini and apple.
• This recipe works well baked in a loaf pan, or in a cake pan (round or square), or as cupcakes and can be iced with cream cheese icing. We prefer it without icing, as it is very moist on it's own.
• If you are a white chocolate lover, make this white chocolate cream cheese icing:

      WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE ICING:

9 OZ WHITE CHOCOLATE, MELTED AND COOLED

12 OZ CREAM CHEESE, ROOM TEMPERATURE

6 OZ BUTTER, ROOM TEMPERATURE

1 1/2 TABLESPOONS LEMON JUICE

• WITH THE PADDLE ATTACHMENT, BEAT THE CREAM CHEESE UNTIL SMOOTH.
• GRADUALLY BEAT IN THE COOLED CHOCOLATE.
• BEAT IN THE BUTTER, AND THEN THE LEMON JUICE.

  

•  The carrot carrot cake freezes well.