Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.
Nichol's Garden Cafe's carrot cake
Ingredients
1⅓ cups canola oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
5 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups grated carrot
½ cup walnuts
Method
Mix oil, sugars and eggs together, add dry ingredients, then mix in carrots and walnuts. Pour into lined tins.
Bake at 160degC for 45-60min until skewer comes out clean.
Ice with cream cheese icing.
Decorate with chopped dried apricots, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and sliced almonds.
Requested by Candice Fox, of Fairfield.
This recipe comes from Nichol's Garden Cafe, in Cromwell.
• If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz , including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.