Janet Jeffs` Canberra Cake
Enjoy this delicious walnut, apple, carrot and honey cake created with ingredients all grown in the Canberra 100 mile food shed.
About this Recipe
2013 was a big year for Ginger and Canberra. The whole city celebrated the centenary of Canberra and was blessed with the opening of the National Arboretum Canberra, which we are thrilled to be able to call our home for the last 10 years since its opening.
As part of the centenary celebrations, Janet was tasked with creating a cake that spoke to the spirit of Canberra and from that this delicious walnut, apple, carrot and honey cake was born with a list of ingredients all sourced from within a 100-mile radius of Canberra.
As happens in life, the landscape of Canberra suppliers has changed over the past ten years with some of the treasured growers the were included in the original recipe moved onto other ventures or sadly were unable to continue through the trials of drought, bushfires or the covid pandemic. So to commemorate 10 years of the National Arboretum Canberra and the Canberra Cake we are rereleasing the recipe with a current selection of Canberra region growers which delight our tastebuds with their fresh, local produce.
Canberra Cake Recipe
Makes
20cm round cake
Ready In:
1hr 20min
- 250g Featherdale Batlow walnuts, roughly chopped
- 250g Tanbella Orchard apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 3 Southern Harvest Association carrots, grated
- 300g Demeter biodynamic bakers flour from Gunnedah
- 250g Murringo honey
- 4 Long Paddock Farm eggs
- 200ml Homeleigh Grove extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- tsp bicarbonate soda
Cream Cheese Icing
- 210g soft room-temperature cream cheese
- 170g soft room-temperature butter
- 250g soft icing sugar, sifted
- 15g vanilla bean paste
- 5ml lemon juice
- Walnuts and edible flowers to garnish
Instructions
To make the cake
Preheat your oven at 180°C. Line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.
Sift all your dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside. Place all your liquid ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add your grated carrots, grated apples, and walnuts to the liquid, mix on low setting for 30 – 50 seconds. Slowly add all your sifted dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl, mix well for about 8 minutes, the mixture will be quite runny.
Pour the ingredients into your cake tin. Bring your temperature down to 150°C and bake for 50-60 minutes with no fan.
Cream Cheese Icing
Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add soft butter and beat very well, scraping the bowl occasionally.
Add the icing sugar slowly and beat again very well. Add lemon juice and vanilla bean Beat until all combined.
Once the cake has cooled completely, ice the top of the cake with a thick layer.
Garnish with walnuts and edible flower petals.
