Carrot Cake

This cake was an experiment for Easter a few weeks back, but it was AMAZING! It was very moist because of the rasins and orange juice and had the traditional cream cheese frosting, which I can't pass up!

Carrot Cake:
1 orange
1 lemon
3/4 c. golden rasins
3 eggs
1 1/4 c. light brown sugar
2 2/1 c. carrots, finely grated (I cheated and bought the shredded carrots at the grochery store)
1 c. self rising flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (use fresh if you can)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 c. ground almonds
1/4 c. walnuts, chopped

For the icing:
3 c. confectioners' sugar
1/2 c. cream cheese
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice and grated zest from lemon

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Line the base of a 8 inch pan with parchment paper. Lightly grease with vegetable oil.
• Grate the zest of the orange and the lemon and set aside. Squeeze the orange juice into a bowl and add the rasins to the juice. Set aside.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar with the orange and lemon zest for 5 mins until pale and full of air. Add the grated carrot and beat.
• Slowly add in the spices, salt, ground almonds, baking soda and flour then mix quickly...not too long or the dough will be tough.
• With a spatula mix in the rasins and orange juice that has been sitting. Also mix in the walnuts.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40 mins.
• Cool in the pan for 15 mins. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
• To make the icing beat the first cup of sugar with the cream cheese in a large bowl. Once you have created a paste add the remaining sugar with lemon juice and zest. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before icing the cake.

This recipe came from "Cook Yourself Thin"
It serves 9 and has 310 calories per serving