Purple Carrot Loaf Cake

Preheat the oven to 180˚C (top and bottom heat). Prepare a loaf cake tin and grease it with butter and dust with cocoa.

First, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cocoa, and lemon zest. In a deep bowl, whisk the butter with honey until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Alternately mix in the dry mixture and buttermilk in parts (start and end with flour). Stir in the rum and finally fold in the carrot, chopped nuts (I recommend coarsely chopping them in a chopper), and chocolate with a spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared dusted tin and bake for about 50 – 60 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. Check the loaf cake after about 40 minutes – the surface should be firm, but a gentle touch will reveal that the inside is still unbaked. To prevent over-baking the surface, cover with foil if necessary. Check with a skewer test (if you insert a skewer into the center of the cake, it should come out dry or with crumbs, not with wet unbaked batter).