Oh. My. God. This is heavenly. Carrot cake is my favourite kind of cake, but here's how I changed it a bit: I did as others suggested and used half white and half brown sugar and used more spice, increasing the cinnamon by only 1/2 a tsp, then added 1 tsp of allspice and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. I also cut the oil down to 1 cup, and used a big more carrot. I didn't add any extra fluid, though. I had to substitute walnuts for pecans, but I roasted them first to bring out more flavour. Finally, I made a much simpler cream cheese frosting: mix 200g cream cheese with 1 1/4 cup icing sugar and add some vanilla. et voila, perfect icing! I don't like butter in my cream cheese icing :) It's plenty sweet with tons of the cream cheese flavour this way.

Reviewed On: Nov. 9, 2009

Turned out beautifully. I couldn't find ground cloves or ginger in my supermarket here in Japan, but I substituted a bit of ginger paste and it was fine. I made it using a Japanese kabocha pumpkin, making the puree fresh, and it had a very delicate pumpkin flavour. I also used light brown sugar instead of white, and I cut down the oil by 1/4 cup and added a bit more pumpkin puree. I loved it! Will definitely make it again.

Reviewed On: Nov. 8, 2009

I had to alter the recipe for use in Japan. I halved all the ingredients and made it in a loaf pan, and added a touch of allspice and nutmeg. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find proper apples, as all apples in Japan tend to be soft and sweet compared to a granny smith, or even a red delicious. To compensate for this I cut down on the sugar a bit and added a bit more flour. The end result was iffy at first. The top cooked pretty fast, and the middle was still undercooked, so I had to add an extra 10 minutes to the baking time. When I took it out the next time the middle had caught up, and the top was a lovely sugary crisp. If I make it again, I will probably use a few less apples, and maybe layer the bottom of the pan with apples and brown sugar to make it more of an upside-down cake. Oh well, baking in Japan has always been pretty experimental!

Reviewed On: Nov. 8, 2009