Belly Bakes Week 21: Carrot cake scone recipe

Carrot cake…but give me scones!

We love carrot cake in this house – it is one of my husband’s favourite cakes however I fancied changing it up a bit with this Belly Bake. He is amazing at baking scones (I’m quite jealous) so I decided to have a go at making them myself. Make sure you check out the baking tips beforehand because I learned a few things whilst baking them and making THREE batches ha!

Ingredients

• 100g plain flour
• 100g spelt flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 50g butter
• 2 oranges, zest and juice
• 3 tbsp sultanas
• 2 medium sized carrots
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C and pop a baking tray in the oven
2. Mix the flour and spices together, plus the orange zest and set aside
3. Juice the oranges into a separate bowl and add the sultanas
4. Rub the cold, cubed butter into the dry ingredient mix until it resembles breadcrumbs
5. Add the sugar and grated carrot to the mix and ensure that they are evenly distributed
6. Add the sultanas to the mixture (minus the orange juice) and stir them through
7. Add enough of the orange juice to the mixture until it forms a ball of dough
8. Tip the dough onto a well floured surface, flatten out until it is about 3cm thick
9. Use a cutter to cut rounds out of the dough and pop onto a hot baking tray
10. Use milk (or a beaten egg) to brush the tops and sprinkle some demerara sugar on top
11. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden
12. Serve with a cream cheese spread that has been mixed to taste with icing sugar and some of the reserved orange juice – add some zest on top!

Baking tips

• The best tip I can give you is from my husband himself – never put an unbaked scone on a cold baking tray. You need to ensure that the tray is heated up in the oven before you put anything on it because it helps with the rise and cooking the bottoms immediately
• It would be fine to skip the inclusion of spelt flour – we just had it in the cupboard and I thought it would be nice. Wholemeal flour or rye flour would also be good
• Do not overmix and try not to handle the dough too much!

Carrot baby!

Check back next week for the next Belly Bake! It’s papaya so let’s be honest, I probably won’t bake with that…maybe the week afterwards when it’s all about the grapefruit!

If you want more baking inspiration, why not check out the other recipes on my site, such as this amazing cookie recipe or follow me via Instagram!