Carrot Cake

We’re having a cake bake fundraiser in the office on Wednesday for “Hospice at Home” who were wonderful when a colleague was dying of cancer.  It also happens to be my birthday so I’ll be killing two birds with one stone when I get out the mixing bowls tonight.  I’m going to make carrot cakes as they are pretty fool proof and most people seem to enjoy them, especially when they have cream cheese topping.  I have a variety of recipes but the one I bake the most is below.  It uses oil so is actually very light and moist.


CARROT CAKE

Cake

7oz light muscovado sugar

4 fl oz sunflower oil

3 eggs

3 medium grated carrots

4oz raisins

zest of 1 orange

7oz self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

0.5 tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

Frosting

7oz icing sugar

4oz cream cheese

2oz butter

1 tbsp orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment. The easiest way to do this is to cut two long strips the width of the tin and put each strip crossways, covering the base and sides of the tin, with a double layer in the base

Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.

Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients - when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)

Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Set the cake on a serving plate and cover with the topping.

Green Tomato Chutney

I made green tomato chutney this weekend.  Earlier this year, Nerea  planted 3 tomato plants in tubs in the back yard and they grew like Topsy, producing several pounds of fruit.  The only trouble is that since the summer ended at the beginning of August, we’ve had no sun to ripen them and with the nights getting colder, we decided to harvest them before they became frost damaged.  The kitchen has smelt delicious, if a little vinegary, as the chutney has been slowly simmering on the stove top.  It should have matured sufficiently to be eaten with cold-cuts by Christmas

Worcester

Andy has gone to Worcester today for a meeting.  It isn't a city we're overly familiar with apart from its historic associations with the English Civil War and manufacture of porcelain so it'll be great if he finds time to have a look around. I always think it's a great pity to visit somewhere and never discover the true essence of the place. It's something that often happens with residential work events when you are lucky to escape the inside of an anodyne hotel. Hopefully Andy will feel inspired enough to see something other than the inside of a pub!

People watching

I collected Grandma from the airport on Sunday evening on her return from visiting friends "Down South!" I always enjoy collecting her as even the small, provincial airport that is Newcastle provides interesting opportunities for people watching.  And "Arrivals Halls" are often happy places, witness to scores of individual stories; the joyful re-unions between much loved relatives and friends, the relief on the faces of weary business travellers knowing that finally, they can sleep in their own beds or the eager tourists, anticipating excitedly the delights of their holiday visit.  I saw them all re-enacted on Sunday while people watching

Little Mell Fell

We're all suffering from the inevitable "back to school"colds brought home by Nerea. Andy felt the first signs on Friday, just as Nerea was recovering so it was Lemsips all round and a re-think of our weekend plans.We decided to stick with a hill walk with Robin and Cathryn but stay lowish so Andy wasn't over tired. We headed for Little Mell Fell, a classic rounded knoll above Ullswater. The inclement weather confirmed the wisdom of our decision as we got absolutely soaked, saw very little from the summit but still enjoyed ourselves. Fresh air - we love it

CARLISLE'S GHOSTLY PAST

I’m planning to find out more about Carlisle’s ghostly past so I can set up a geocaching trail. I’ve wanted to do an historic trail around the city for ages but with a slightly different theme so I’ve been thinking.  Always dangerous!  Surprisingly, Carlisle doesn’t seem to be overly blessed with too many ghosts according to Google so I need to dig a little deeper into the Carlisle history books.  I’d be very surprised if there weren’t some unsettled spirits drifting around the city as it has such an ancient and violent past. I just need them to start appearing!

SARDINES NOT SANDWICHES

Today I had fresh sardines for lunch and very tasty they were too.  My family love fish of any sort and we are very lucky to have an excellent fish counter at our local supermarket, so fish is a regular on our table. We don’t even mind the bones.  I often buy sardines and coat them in oil and Cajun spice before baking them in the oven but today I fancied them plain with lemon juice. The only down side is that the house smelt of fish at 8am this morning so it’ll linger all day, driving the cats wild