We have managed to do the cooking and the blog for a whole year! It is the first time my children stick with something (out of pleasure and without any bribes) for such a long time. We are seriously proud of this and have celebrated it with a carrot cake. The recipe is from Delia (we have only altered it slightly by simplifying it a little) and it is sinful. It seems like a lot of ingredients but it is actually rather simple to make.
You need:
-200 gr wholemeal flour (Delia calls for wholemeal self raising but we did not have any, so we added baking soda and bicarb)
- 1.5 tsp bicarbonate
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 tsp all spice
- 175 g dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 150 ml sunflower oil
- 200 g grated carrots
- 100 g raisins
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 50 g pecan nuts
- zest of one orange
For the syrup you need the juice of the orange, juice of a lemon and 75 gr dark brown sugar.
For the frosting: 1 tub 250 g mascarpone cheese, 150 g philadelphia cheese and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees.
Toast the pecan nuts over a frying pan on low heat for 3 minutes (watch it carefully as it is very easy to burn them). Whisk the sugar, eggs and oil with a blender. Add the flour, bicarb, baking soda and all spice by folding it all in. Then add all the other ingredients. You can bake this on a lined tin (for 45 minutes) or on two (in this case you only need 30 minutes).
While the cake is being baked mix the juice of the orange lemon and brown sugar. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven prick it a few times with a toothpick or skewer and pour the syrup on top. Wait until the cake is cold to get it out of the tin.
Mix the Mascarpone and Philadelphia cheese with the sugar and cover the top and sides of the cake ( if you use two tins then use the frosting to fill in the cake as well. The cake is actually very nice without frosting as well.
