Christmas banana carrot cake

BASE

450g 7dl wheat flour
4 tsp. baking powder
6 tsp. gingerbread spice mix
2 tsp. nutmeg powder
1 tsp. orange peel powder
1 tsp. clove
3 dl 300 g brown sugar
2 dl 100 g grated carrots
4 bananas mashed
4 eggs
3 dl 300 ml oil
1 dl crystallized ginger crushed

MOISTENING LIQUID

2 dl Glöet white sparkling glögg
1 1/2 dl sugar
2 tbsp. orange juice
3 tbsp. lemon juice

FROSTING

205 g soft butter
340 g cream cheese
350 g powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
a pinch of cardamom

DECORATION

Gingerbread cookies
Gingerbread cookie crumbs
Pecan nuts
Spruce branches or rosemary branches
Powdered sugar

Mix the flour, baking powder and spice mix together in a large bowl.  In another bowl, mix the sugar, grated carrots and mashed bananas. Add oil and eggs to the bowl. Stir in the flour mixture. Use a sieve to avoid lumps.

Pour the batter into a baking dish greased with butter and breadcrumbs. Bake in the oven at 180°C / 356°F for 40 min. Allow to cool and set aside the cake on baking paper. Leave the cake to cool properly.

Next, mix the ingredients for the moistening liquid. Put all the ingredients for the moistening liquid in a saucepan and let it boil for a while. Then let it cool for a while. Moisten the base of the cake with the moistening liquid.

Prepare the frosting. Put the ingredients in a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until smooth, and put the frosting in the fridge for a while to cool. When the cake has cooled, ice the cake with a generous amount of frosting.

Cut the cake into squares and decorate them with gingerbread cookie crumbs, pecan nuts, spruce or rosemary branches and powdered sugar.