Carrot and Olive Oil Cake with White Chocolate Lemon Frosting

I've made this cake a couple of times, but it was specially requested for KT's birthday, so I decided to try it with this frosting, which I previously made for my normal, vegan chocolate cake (though the frosting is a dairy explosion). Anyway, chocolate cake with lemon frosting is a beautiful thing. I made candied lemon peels to top that, but for the carrot cake, I candied carrot curls and lemon slices...beautiful, tasty and so pretty.

Carrot and Olive oil cake
250ml (1 cup) olive oil
500g white sugar
4 eggs, beaten (these would be easily substituted for a vegan cake)
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or pernik spice)
1 tsp ground cardamon
1 tsp salt
500g carrots, peeled and grated

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F
2. Mix olive oil, sugar and eggs and carrots in a bowl. Sift the flour and other dry ingredients into another bowl and add the wet mixture to the dry.
3. Line the bottom of a 10 inch round cake tin with parchment (I used a large rectangular tin) and grease the sides. Pour in the cake batter and bake 70-80 minutes, or until a skewer comes clean from the center. Cool in tin.

White Chocolate Lemon Frosting
    * 11 ounces good-quality white chocolate, finely chopped
    * 12 ounces cream cheese (or  soft Tvaroh), room temperature
    * 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
    * 2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest


1. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler on the stove-top, let cool slightly
2.Cream the butter and cream cheese and zest with a electric mixer
3. Add the cooled white chocolate and mix.
4. Cool for at least 30 minutes and then frost cake.