Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup castor sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon orange extract (or 1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind)
- 3 oz dried apricots
- 8 oz shredded carrots
- 9 oz all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 2 oz chopped walnuts
Method:
- Add enough water to cover apricots and let stand for about 15-20 minutes. Chop them into small pieces
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper and grease lightly
- In a large bowl beat eggs and sugar until smooth. Add oil, orange rind/orange extract and vanilla extract and beat until frothy.
- Squeeze excess juice from carrots and stir into the egg mixture with chopped apricots.
- Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together
- Add four mixture into the wet ingredients in 3 batches until well combined
- Mix in poppy seeds and walnut pieces
- Spoon batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top
- Bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes (or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean).
- Leave in pan for about 10 minutes
- Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely
Note: After making the cake, I felt like the amount of poppy seed I added was a bit too much. So it can be reduced to 1 tablespoon or 1 1/2 tablespoons.
