Carrot Cake

I am not a big fan of carrot cake but there are worshipers here who absolutely love carrot cake. One of them happens to be S, who loves only this cake in the whole world. Even the sexiest of chocolate cake doesn't make him go week-on-the-knees. I make the carrot cake every year for his birthday with little variations, but since the past few years, I've been making it with whole-meal flour. I make them with fresh pineapple & frost it with toasted coconut cream cheese icing or a simple carrot cake with hazelnuts/walnuts/pecans (like here) & lemon cream cheese icing. This year I adapted Donna Hays recipe and the cake was fabulously moist and perfectly balanced. This one is for keepers!!

Carrot Cake
 Ingredients
220g brown sugar
185ml vegetable oil 
3 eggs 
225g whole-meal or AP flour 
1½ teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
½ teaspoon mixed spice 
½ teaspoon ground ginger 
About 5-6 med sized carrots grated 
60g chopped pecan /hazelnut or walnut 
60g sultanas 
Cream Cheese Icing 
250g cream cheese/mascarpone, softened 
3-4 tbsp icing sugar, sifted 
zest & Juice of ½ a lemon or 1-2tbsp lemon curd 
Method: 

Preheat oven to 180°C . Place the sugar and oil in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 2–3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, mixed spice and ginger over the sugar mixture. Add the carrot, nuts and sultanas and mix until just combined. Pour into 2 greased 8 inch-round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in tin. 
 For the cream cheese icing: Beat the cream cheese in a food processor until smooth. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice/lemon curd and process until smooth. Spread frosting on the cooled cake as desired. I simply used it to sandwich the layer and just on top.

Starting 2012 with sweet treats:Banana-Apple-Loaf & Salted Caramel Sauce

Imperfections….Everyone and everything have them. I am not big on New Year resolutions. It’s just not meant for me…But somehow since the New Year, I have a new perception to imperfections. Like these early harvest apples with specks like freckles on skin or the reduced price tulips I bought yesterday from the market. Suddenly I seem to notice the beauty beyond imperfections. I guess its natural to have such moments. I do have my moments of gloominess with winter’s grey, wet & dreadfully dark days, but moaning aside I do love the comfort season. I love chilly early mornings of silvery and misty skies with a piping mug of boozy coffee, ovaltine or hot chocolate. I love the duvet nights with earthy comfort foods like soup or Mac&Cheese. I seem to find inspiration everywhere, I find them in trees bending to the will of the wind, by the auburn and copper-tinged leaves that fall from the trees & cover the damp ground; despite the never-ending bleak dark days. Even moods are like seasons. There are times of cheeriness like summer, when everything is colorful and then there are dreary times like winter when all you want to do is potter around the house, doing absolutely nothing. I am thankful that I have people around me who love me despite all this. I am thankful that S loves me even on those non-showered-no-makeup-lying-on-the-bed days as much as the cheerful-well-groomed days. So I decided to give these over-ripened bananas & freckled apples a face-lift of vanilla, lemon zest and love and baked a Banana-Apple Cake. Its one of those things you can walk-straight-from-work-and-bake-in-your-boots.

*Having said that I just noticed some imperfect lines around my eyes & invested ££ in a jar of eye-cream. Gowd! how we hate imperfections on skin :-). 

 Loaf 1

 Loaf 2

Banana-Apple-Loaf

This loaf is very hearty, and very forgiving. I’ve made quite a few variations myself. The first loaf has banana & apple with cake flour, almond meal, ricotta and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds. The second loaf has banana just 2 instead of 3, 2 sliced apples, 1 grated carrot, wholemeal instead of flour & almond meal with 3 tbsp of yoghurt. If you prefer plain banana loaf just omit the apples & carrot and add a handful of walnuts or hazelnuts. The cake tastes best still warm with lashings of salted caramel butter. Its great with cup of coffee for breakfast as well. Loaf 2 tends to be slightly denser as it has wholemeal flour.

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter

100g darkbrown sugar

100g caster sugar

2 med eggs

3 ripe bananas

50g ricotta

140g cake flour

30g ground almond

Zest of 1 lemon

1tsp vanilla

1 large or 2 med apple, sliced thinly

1tbsp vanilla sugar

Hanful of pumpkin seeds/flaked almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C and line a 9×5-inch loaf pan with greaseproof paper. In a processor, beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the eggs and whizz briefly. Add the banana, zest, vanilla extract, ricotta and whizz again. Sift all the dry ingredients in a bowl and slowly fold into the wet ingredients. Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin, arrange the apple slices on top and evenly sprinkle a layer of vanilla sugar and pumpkin seeds over the top of the loaf. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.

Serve with salted caramel sauce while still warm.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

30g unsalted butter

50g sugar

125ml heavy cream

1tsp sea salt (I used maldon)

Method:

On a med heat melt sugar until it reaches a dark amber and slowly whisk in the cream. Let it simmer for a few minutes. Now off heat add the salt and butter. This is great poured over toasts, ice-creams, cakes. Reduce the amount of salt to 1/2 tsp if you want a milder salted caramel.

Guest Post for Made With Pink

Here's the sneak peak of the guest post I am doing for Andrea. I was honoured when she asked me to guest post on her blog, while she was away on maternity. You will find the recipe here at Andrea's beautiful blog called MadeWithPink. And please, wish her a happy motherhood!

Boozy Fruit Cake

You know Christmas is here when

1. The radio plays 'All I want for Christmas' & 'Last Christmas' endlessly
2. Starbucks bring back their famous Christmas Lattes and Christmas blend coffee
3. Markets, old and new, sell Christmas goodies.
4. Shimmering lights light up the once dark gloomy streets.
5. Deli's start stocking the shelves with fruitcakes, mince pies & puddings.
6. Roads are slippery and you don't find salt for either cooking or gritting!

But for me its this time of the year when I go through a baking frenzy...With all the snow and bad weather outside there is something cosy about just staying home and baking.

I made fruit cake, mince pies, mince meat and xmas pudding this year, in spite of being down with flu bug. 

I make this fruit cake every year, experimenting with new flavours, & this time I made this cake using Pedro Ximénez an intensely sweet, dark dessert sherry that works perfectly for this cake. It gave the cake a gorgeous brown colour and fruity richness. I brushed the cooled cake with brandy to make it more boozy and christmassy, perfect to serve with a warm glass of Mulled Wine.

Boozy Fruit Cake (adapted minimally from Delicious)

Ingredients

Raisins - 250gms

Sultanas - 175 gms

Mixed Peel - 100gms

Glacé Cherries - 50 gms

Pedro Ximénez - 150ml (you could use all Brandy)

Grated Zest of 1 Orange and Lemon

Unsalted Butter - 200gms

Mixed Spice Sugar - 60gms (you could use all light brown sugar)

Light Brown Sugar - 80 gms

Dark Brown Sugar - 40gms

Eggs - 4

Sponge Flour - 275 gms

Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp

Ground Cinnamon - 1tsp

Mixed Spice - 1 tsp

Blanched Almonds - 100 gms

Method:

Mix the raisins,sultanas & currants in a bowl. Pour over warm water to cover & leave aside for 2 hrs. Drain the fruits through a colander and leave to dry overnight on a muslin cloth. Grease & Line an 8" loose bottom pan with grease proof paper. I used 2 sheets on the base & sides. Mix the fruits with the zest & Pedro Ximénez in a pan. Bring this to a boil and leave to cool. Preheat oven to 160C. Sift the flour,baking powder & the spices. Beat the butter & sugar till light. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and the cooled fruits, almonds to this and gently fold everything till combined. If the mixture looks very thick add a splash of milk. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1-1.15 min or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.Leave to cool for a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When cool brush the top and sides of the cake with brandy.