3 TIER SPICED CARROT & WALNUT CAKE

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Preheat oven to 170oC / Gas 4 and line your baking tins with greaseproof paper. Add the sugar, oil and eggs into a large mixing bowl or your electric mixer.
When lightly mixed, add the carrot, raisins, grated orange, pumpkin seeds and a handful of walnuts.
Next mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices and sieve into the bowl. When everything has come together nicely, stop mixing. It's best to put your mixture into a jug and pour it into the baking tins before putting them in the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Once your cakes are cooling on wire racks, it's time to make the butter icing! Mix the butter on it's own for five minutes until it is lighter in colour and very creamy in texture. Gradually add the icing sugar until it has all combined.
Add the milk and the orange zest and beat for a further couple of minutes. Once cakes are completely cooled, level off the layers by removing any peaks in the cake. This makes the cake a lot more level and visually a little more pleasing. You can use a large sharp knife for this or a cake leveller is super easy too, obviously be careful doing this though, there are no fingers in this recipe.
Spoon the icing into a large disposable piping bag and using a large star nozzle, pipe around the bottom layer in a circle and fill into the middle. Place middle cake layer on top and repeat this process.
After placing the top layer of cake down, start piping stars around the outside by squeezing vertically with your piping bag and lifting up into a point. Place walnuts on alternate icing stars and dust with icing! Voila.