Posts

Posted on

Carrot Cake

My husband loves carrot cake, so what better thing to bake him for his birthday cake?  As aforementioned, we are going to be cupcaked out by the end of next week, so I thought it would be better to make his cake a bit different from the endless sponge that is to come go for something he’ll enjoy.  I hope.  This is a new recipe for me and involves a triple layering.  Not for the faint-hearted!  Or for the poor in skill (that’ll be me then…).

The cake-making bit was fine apart from the endless grating of carrot which I managed without serrating any of my digits (but through luck more than anything else).  I always use a kitchenaid to make cake, so unless instructed otherwise, assume all beating is done with the help of a mixer and not by hand.  
I beat 3 eggs, 300g of soft light brown sugar and 300ml of sunflower oil until well-mixed then added 300g plain flour, 1 tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and mixed well.
Then I added 300g of (laboriously) grated carrot and 100g of chopped walnuts.  This bit I’d do by hand else you’ll end up with smush.
I divided the mixture into 3 x 20cm cake tins and baked for 20 mins at 170ºC.  
To make the icing I sifted 600g of icing sugar and mixed it with 100g soft unsalted butter (using the paddle attachment).  Then I added 250g of cream cheese and mixed on a medium speed for 5 mins.  
Then…the tricky bit.

As you will see from the photos, icing is not my forte.  Especially a triple layered cake.  The only other attempt I made at one of these was exactly the same, a big splotty cakey version of The Leaning Tower of Pisa!  Possibly I should level off my my cakes before I ice them, but that would mean a lot of nifty and straight knife work.  Anyway, I ploughed onward iced each layer with 1/4 of the icing then used the last quarter for the sides.  I ended up with a somewhat wonky, but nevertheless iced cake adorned with walnuts and shortly afterwards a plastic golfer and three birthday candles.

The result was a good.  Not excellent, not poor but good.  The icing was creamy and delicious but rather over powered the cake.  Perhaps next time I will try two thicker layers rather than three thin ones.  The cake was SO moist – fantastic!  The taste was fine, but for me I would perhaps increase the cinnamon and ginger to one teaspoon for a bit more ‘kick’.  As predicted, the kids hated the cake and only liked the icing.  No change there!  But Husband and I enjoyed it and he is taking the leftovers into work tomorrow for further devouring.
Posted on

Lemon Cupcakes

It’s competition day.  That is, ‘send your child in with cakes for their birthday and out-do all the other mums’ day.  I am mildly competitive.  OK, very.  So adorned in my fav Cath Kiston apron (yes, I have two!) I set about making lemon cupcakes for my son to take into school.  Thier elegance was somewhat dampened by the football cake cases into which they nestled their lemony bottoms, but nevertheless they held their own.

Posted on

Birthday Boys

Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday and then 3 days later it is my son’s birthday.  Next week it’s his party. So this week I shall be blogging about fusion food.  
Only joking, it’s all gonna be about cake, cake, cake!
In the next 10 days have to make:

1 grown-up birthday cake
20 cupcakes to take into school
1 dinosaur cake
12 jubilee cupcakes (with the added hazard of being ‘helped’ by my kids)
1 large traybake cake, decorated for a party of 16 ravenous children
I have just put a Waitrose order in and the amount of sugar and butter that’s on there is embarrassing.  It’s one of those orders that makes you want to explain yourself to the delivery man as he heaves it up the garden path.  Like when I order about 9 bottles of wine because it’s my fav and on offer.  I’m sure he clanks it down on the doormat and thinks ‘luuuush!’.  Which is, perhaps, not without merit, but I feel I need to chirp up with ‘It’s not all for me!’ which means exactly the opposite.  Just not all at once.
I digress; so back to the mountain of cake I have to make this week.  I will of course do my best to document the baking frenzy that will engulf the house and try not to lick ALL the bowls I use (this is my little guilty pleasure).  Lord knows what they’ll turn out like and with all the glorious sunshine we’re having I am sure they will be a gooey mess by the time we get around to lighting the candles.  To make it worse, I am on dieting (again) and cannot partake in the eating part which, let’s face it, is the best bit.  Maybe a slither….a good cook should always taste their food after all…..
Posted on

Know your Place(mats)!

I found these place mats at a country show years ago and I still love them.  They make me giggle (especially the froggy one – haven’t explained that to the kids yet!).  They are by Tangent Art and annoyingly I cannot find their original website – hoping they haven’t given up trading.  However, I did find some of their coasters on this site so if you want some, perhaps contact them.  I know, rubbish info but thought I’d share my regular dining companions with you.  These four are my favourites….

  

Posted on

Lemon drizzle traybake

I LOVE lemons….and my son has inherited my hankering for them.  I have always gone for the lemon option on a pudding menu and maintain the lemon flavour is the best one in a packet of Starburst.  My one and only craving in my three pregnancies was…lemon!  Lemon sherberts, lemon tart, lemonade, lemon curd…and today, for my poorly son, lemon drizzle traybake.

Posted on

Stuffed chicken wrapped in prosciutto

This is a dish of my own invention!  So not particularly difficult then….

All I did was put of dollop of Le Roule cheese in a chicken breast and then wrapped the breast around to cover the cheese.  Then I wrapped each breast in 2 slices of prosciutto (but bacon, parma ham etc. would work just as well, I’m sure).  To secure it all and keep all the ingredients where they are supposed to be I skewered it with some cocktail sticks.  Than I baked the chicken in a 180ºC oven for about half an hour.  When it was cooked I removed the cocktail sticks and served with some steamed baby sweetcorn and fine green beans.