Carrot Cake

Now, I'm going to be totally honest. The other day I twigged that my jeans were a little more snug than I'd care for, my face and physique a little more rounded. And it dawned on me, I probably ought to be going easier on the biscuits and taking smaller portions from the abundant buffet on offer at work. However, I like to start things like this on a Monday {or the first day of the month, or a New Year..} - it seems a bit tidier, a bit more appropriate for some reason. So until Monday, I'm doing what we, in my family, call "eating everything but grass". Which is where carrot cake comes into it. I had never eaten carrot cake until last Summer, having convinced myself that I hated the stuff. Low and behold the absolute opposite is true and I could eat the stuff all the time. Combined with the fact it's my boyfriend's favourite cake and it was a clear winner.

I used a loaf tin I had lying around instead of a square baking tin so I had to adjust the cooking times accordingly {gas mark 4, middle of the oven for 55 minutes give or take} and I used the cake recipe from this site but the icing recipe from here because I had some Quark left over that I wanted to use up. The result was delicious. Light and carrot-y whilst the icing had a just the right amount of tang to it, I think from the addition of the Quark. 

I have to say, the icing didn't turn out as thick as I would've liked though I still liked the effect and the taste. I know this was in part down to overbeating but I always seem to have a bit of bother with cream cheese icing. This is confounded by the fact that an eternal debate rages in our house as to how cheesey it ought to be {to me, it ought to have some of the tang of cream cheese coming through, to my boyfriend, why on earth would you put cheese on a cake?! Isn't it buttercream icing instead?!}. Regardless, I made it on Saturday afternoon and it barely saw out the rest of the weekend, which is always a good sign in my books. A cake that lasts long in our home, is clearly not that good a cake!

Does anyone have any good carrot cake recipes? Or advice on the icing front/ I could really use some!

Love B x