Mary Berry’s Sunshine Cake
Mary Berry's simple sunshine cake is a twist on a carrot cake, with added courgette and banana. Dense and close in texture, it is topped with a light cream cheese frosting and banana slices.
From the book
Love to Cook
120 recipes from the nation's favourite cook
Featuring all of the recipes from the accompanying BBC2 series
Celebrating fuss-free cooking and the ingredients and flavours Mary loves
Introduction
This cake is a joy – banana, courgette and carrot are the hidden gems that children will not realise are there! To give added interest and texture, we like to use banana slices or dried banana for decoration. This is not a deep cake, as it has a closer texture than a plain sponge.
Ingredients
| 225g (8oz) | self-raising flour |
| 175g (6oz) | caster sugar |
| 1 tsp | baking powder |
| 4 | large eggs |
| 225ml (8fl oz) | sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing |
| 100g (4oz) | carrot, peeled and coarsely grated |
| 100g (4oz) | overripe banana, mashed |
| 100g (4oz) | courgettes, coarsely grated |
| 75g (3oz) | chewy dried banana slices, broken into pieces |
| For the cream cheese icing: | |
|---|---|
| 100g (4oz) | butter, softened |
| 100g (4oz) | full-fat cream cheese |
| 1 tsp | vanilla extract |
| 225g (8oz) | icing sugar |
Essential kit
You will need: two loose-bottomed 20cm (8in) sandwich cake tins and an electric whisk.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Grease two loose-bottomed 20cm (8in) sandwich cake tins and base line with non-stick baking paper.
Measure the flour, sugar and baking powder into a large bowl.
Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then add the oil, carrot, mashed banana and courgettes to the eggs and stir. Add these wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk together using an electric whisk until combined.
Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until well risen and lightly golden.
Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely. The cakes will shrink back a little when cooling.
To make the icing, place the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and half the icing sugar and whisk again until combined. Add the remaining icing sugar and whisk until light and fluffy.
Spread half the icing over one cake. Sandwich the cakes together, then spread the remaining icing on the top and swirl. Arrange the slices of banana in a spiral pattern.
Cut into slices to serve.
Mary’s tips:
Can be made a day ahead and iced on the day of serving.
Un-iced cakes can be frozen.
