Many cake recipes lend themselves to various obstacles, including an under or over- sponge or an ambitious time that never seems long enough. Carrot cake is among the most difficult to master, and I am sure I am not alone in admitting that I have found it hard to master. That is until I tried one by the esteemed baker Jane Dunn.

The recipe, as shared by Jane's Patisserie, is foolproof for even the most amateur bakers, with no extra steps like squeezing excess moisture out of the carrots. It has a simple ingredients list, too, using oil instead of butter for moist results. But I'm convinced that there's something else about this recipe that makes it so delicious and, most importantly, never dry.

To make my carrot cake, I followed Jane's recipe meticulously the first time to create an impressive sandwich cake with cream cheese frosting.

But I strayed slightly in my recent baking endeavours to whip up two single-layer cakes-one eight-inch sponge and a smaller, four-inch sponge -baked into spring-form tins to easily remove the moist sponges once cooked.

The addition of orange zest is a game-changer for this recipe. The strong, zesty flavour and natural oils from the peel come through in the final cake. I also swapped out ground ginger for some grated root ginger, which had a subtle but similar effect as the orange.

These, combined with the sunflower oil, changed the cake's texture; the batter was thick and moist without being watery.

I found the cake incredibly quick to put together, but it did need to cook more slowly and for longer than Jane recommends to create a dense, moist carrot cake that wasn't too sweet.

Ingredients

• 225 ml sunflower oil
• 5 medium eggs
• 275g light brown sugar (I used less, around 200g)
• 300g grated carrots
• 100g raisins optional
• Zest one orange
• 275g self-raising flour
• 1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Two tsp mixed spice
• One tsp ground ginger (or fresh grated ginger)
• One tsp ground cinnamon

For the frosting, I switched Jane's cream cheese recipe for something cheaper and dairy-free: vanilla buttercream. For this, you will need:

• 125g Flora Buttery (or 125g unsalted dairy butter)
• 250g icing sugar, sieved
• One tsp vanilla extract
• One tbsp of dairy-free yoghurt (I used soya yoghurt, but you can use dairy milk)

First, preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan. Then, grease two eight-inch cake tins and line them with parchment paper. Alternatively, do this with a smaller four-inch cake and a six-inch cake to enjoy separately as single-layer cakes.

Now peel and grate your carrots onto a large plate or in a dish with a flat base for ease. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sunflower oil and eggs, then follow with the light brown sugar, which you can use less than the recipe states (I went for around 1800-200g).

Stir the sugar in, then add the grated carrots and raisins - I always use these but never the nuts. Now add the orange zest and fold through to combine.

Add the self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, ginger, and cinnamon and mix again, taking care not to overmix - this is essential.

Once combined, fold through the nuts (if using) and pour the mixture into the prepared tins. Bake the cakes for about 40 minutes until cooked through.

Before removing them from the oven, test with a skewer to see if the middle comes out clean.

Always leave the cakes to cool fully before removing them from the tin. If, like me, you like the look of Bundt cakes, you can cheat your own by hollowing out the core of the smaller sponge using a small glass or mug.

For the icing, combine the softened butter with the icing sugar until pale and thick, then add the vanilla extract. Add a little yoghurt or milk to loosen if it's too thick, then spread directly onto the cooled cakes. This makes enough to fill the centre and top of a sandwich cake or enough icing to cover two single-layer cakes.

Top with some extra orange zest, or go with lemon or lime if you prefer a more sour, zesty flavour. Small carrot decorations are also a nice finishing touch.