Preheat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan oven) mark 5. Grease a 23x23cm (9x9in) cake tin and line with greaseproof paper.
Step 2
Put the carrots, butter, sultanas, dates, coconut, spices, maple syrup, apple juice and orange zest and juice in a large pan. Cover and bring to the boil, then cook for 5min. Tip into a bowl and leave to cool.
Step 3
Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and walnuts in a large bowl and stir together. Add the cooled carrot mixture and stir well.
Step 4
Spoon into the tin and bake for 45min-1hr until firm. Leave in the tin for 10min, then remove and cool on a wire rack.
Step 5
Finely slice the orange zest. Put the cream cheese, crème fraîche, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl and stir with a spatula. Spread over the cake and top with the zest.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
