Kitchen Exploits - Carrot Cake

A couple of weeks after the birth of Bun, I was ready to receive guests at home. Surprisingly, I was quite energetic and was able to bake and pretty things up a little bit. I definitely wasn't able to do this after my 1st pregnancy, so I think the confidence I had second time round made a big difference.

Another thing that got me up and running was that I agreed to speak at a concurrent session of a conference 7 weeks after I gave birth. I almost freaked out the day before, but managed to do it anyway. What all those personal coaching gurus say about setting goals for yourself was true for me in this instance. But more importantly, I give thanks to my Maker for making it happen!

In those few weeks, I made sure I had coffee and tea ready in the house, and some juices. There would also always be fruits and something chocolate available.

Another thing that kept appearing on my table was the Carrot Cake. I learned to bake this pretty well some time ago, but forgot about it. And because I hadn't been baking it, or anything else for that matter, I made a total of FOUR failed cakes before I figured out what went wrong. Can you imagine the amount of time and money wasted?

Thankfully, I was successful in the end, and started baking it over and over again. Because I knew I could, and it was well-received. See, this was before I purchased round cake tins in preparation for Bubbles' 3rd birthday. I think round cakes are so much prettier!

Photo courtesy of the sweet Yuling

This recipe is adapted from one that my mother-in-law shared with me. She knew I didn't own a kitchen mixer, and took pains to find recipes that do not require machine mixing.

This is a fuss-free recipe - perfect for newbie bakers like myself. Taste frosting and add more icing sugar if you prefer.

Carrot Cake

For cake:

4 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

2 cups self-raising flour

1t baking powder

1t cinnamon powder

1 ½ cups cooking oil

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups grated carrot

2 chopped canned pineapple rings (optional)

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

For frosting:

1 block cream cheese softened at room temperature

50g softened butter (1/5 a regular block)

6 T icing sugar

4 T orange juice

4 T chopped walnuts

Grated rind of 1 orange

 

Cake:

1.      Preheat oven to 180C.

2.      Mix eggs and sugar in bowl A, set aside.

3.      Mix flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder in (bigger) bowl B.

4.      Pour eggs and sugar mixture into bowl B. Mix well.

5.      Add oil, walnuts and carrot. (If using optional ingredients, add them here) Mix well.

6.      Bake in 8-inch cake tin for 45-55 min.

Frosting:

1.      Mix cream cheese and butter with icing sugar.

2.      Add orange juice and mix well.

3.      Whisk till texture is slightly fluffy and spread on cooled cake.

4.      Sprinkle chopped walnuts and grated rind.