Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp fine salt
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
90ml canola oil
1 cup grated carrot
½ small ripe pineapple, finely
diced, squeezed of excess juice
½ cup chopped walnuts
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Spiced pistachios
¼ tsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp icing sugar
85g unsalted pistachios
Cream cheese Icing
250g cream cheese, chopped
3 Tbsp icing sugar, sifted
Zest of ½ orange
Cook's tip: You can use pepita seeds instead of the pistachios, if you like, and vegetable oil can be used in place of the canola oil. If fresh pineapple is unavailable, use the drained fruit from a 400g tin of crushed pineapple.
Method
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Preheat oven to 175°C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Put flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, salt and brown sugar in a large bowl and mix to combine. Stir in egg and oil.
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Add carrot, pineapple juice, walnuts and orange zest to mixture and stir to combine, but don’t over mix.
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Divide mixture evenly between cases. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
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To make spiced pistachios, line an oven tray with baking paper. Put sugar and cardamom in a bowl. Wet pistachios with a little water. Toss in sugar mixture. Put on prepared tray. Bake for 5-10 minutes. Set aside to cool. Roughly chop.
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To make cream cheese icing, put cream cheese, icing sugar and orange zest in a bowl and whisk with a fork.
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Top cakes with icing, sprinkle with spiced pistachios and serve.