Cake happened..

Since my last post I've been pretty busy trying to get things done, I haven't really had much time to myself to sit down and write. I had committed myself to putting up a carrot cake recipe last week, but with everything being so hectic at home with decorating, babysitting, illness and other errands I had to give it a miss. I've never written up a recipe before, but I will definitely give it a go. It will be good to have it written down as I do this by memory, which you shouldn't really try at home because you could end up will fail cakes that taste of misery and let's face it, no one likes fail cakes :(. This recipe came together over summer when my partner and I decided to bake his mother a birthday cake. It was taken from a recipe that I had found on the Internet and then we tweaked it to our taste.



You will need
300g light brown sugar
300g plain flour
300ml Sunflower oil
300g carrots, grated
3 eggs
1 orange
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

For the icing (You may want to double this)
200g icing sugar
50g butter, soft not melted
125g soft cream cheese



I strongly recommend the use of an electric whisk as this cake mix can become quite hard to work with manually.

* Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F or Gas mark 4)
and grease the cake tins (Grease proof paper is recommended if cake tins don't have pop out bottoms).
* Then proceed to peeling and grating the carrots.
* Take half of an orange, then grate the rind and juice it. Put the juice through a sift into a container.
* Mix together the sugar, sunflower oil, eggs and vanilla essence.
* Add the bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger to the flour and distribute evenly.
* Sift the flour into the mix in small portions at a time (You may want to add the orange juice at this stage if it becomes too hard to whisk).
* Add the orange juice if you haven't already done so.
* Add in the carrots and mix until they have been evenly distributed.
* Place the mix into the cake tin, depending on the size (I used a 5" and I get two cakes plus 6-12 cupcakes) and bake for 30 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown.
* Leave to cool for 45 minutes to an hour.

If you put the mix in cupcake cases then depending on the size it can take 15-19 minutes to bake. I also find that cooking time varies on the oven that you use so to be safe I bake the cakes for 30 minutes and then check every ten minutes until they are done.

For the icing, mix the icing sugar with soft butter
Add in the cream cheese and mix thoroughly
Ice your carrot cake and enjoy! :)



So there is the recipe, I like to use orange when I make carrot cake as I feel it makes the cake really moist and I always add more spices than suggested because more spices! It is great for this time of the year, especially with a chai tea or gingerbread latte to keep you warm out in the cold. The weather has started to make up its mind now, I can no longer sit out in the garden and relax or be able to stand the temperature if I go out out for a smoke anymore as it has gotten so chilly. On the bright side I love riding a bike or taking a walk in Autumn, the sound of the leaves crunching under my feet as I stroll is rather pleasant. What do you like about Autumn?

I have had to post this from my iPad as on the web, Wordpress doesn't seem to want to let me publish anything so the layout might be clunky with oversized pictures but I'll get that sorted when I can edit it. I have also missed my four positives for the day:

* I started my open university course today
* I spoke to new people (something I don't do)
* I have cleared so much junk out of my room
* I tried something I wouldn't have on a whim and I won £30 (Free bingo, don't judge me D:)