Let them eat cake

This, my readers, is what a birthday cake should look like. Yes, homespun, yes, I agree it is a little lop-sided. But, it looks like a cake.

Sadly, this is not the spectacular birthday cake which I created for my husband's birthday. No. That one, which I had spent all day preparing including an extra run to the grocery store for a few urgent ingredients was not a success. It was, in fact, a big fat failure. All 75% cocoa solid, condensed milk, pure butter, coffee, bitter sweet chocolate, chocolate ganache of it was a disaster.

Because I broke it. When I came to split and ice it, I broke it. I broke it into so many small pieces that there was no gluing it back together with ganache, no cutting the layers smaller and making a smaller cake. The Ford truck which I'd found in Jewel to place on top took on a new significance, as if it had unloaded right there on the cake plate. This was a shame, because it was his 30th birthday and I had been melting chocolate since he left for work.

Which is why I was more than a little proud of the coffee and walnut cake I turned out earlier this week for a close friend's birthday. Vindication. Or, lesson. Don't over extend when it's that important. Stick to Mum's tried and tested recipe. Impress! And delight! Eat cake.

Tasty Afternoon Carrot Cake

This week I am mostly needing food which is easy, tasty but healthy-feeling after a few weeks of traveling. Visiting family and friends in the UK has meant that we had no fixed schedule, and few set mealtimes. This has made me crave some comfort food. At the start of the week I made very unhealthy chocolate and ginger brownies. I had to send them into work with my husband to avoid eating more than two slices.

Today, looking for a more saintly snack, I dug out all the carrot cake recipes I could find and cobbled together something a little different. Slightly on the crumbing side, it nevertheless has done the job. It has a fantastic crunch to the crust, thanks to the addition of polenta and is wonderfully moist in the centre.

I have a tasty, healthy-sounding carrot cake sat on the kitchen counter with one slice missing.

We have had dreadful weather here today - complete with tornado warnings - so I stopped everything and had a slice with a cup of tea at 4pm. Very British. Very rainy day. Very not helpful for my 750 word deadline.

Tasty Carrot Cake
Adapted from several recipes, including Jamie Oliver and Leith's Cookery Bible

1 lb of carrots, freshly peeled and chopped in the blender until the consistency resembles finely grated carrot
3 eggs, separated
about 1 1/2 inches of thumb width freshly grated ginger
150 ml of honey
6 fl oz of olive oil
1 tsp of vanilla essence
2 tsp baking powder
3 1/2 oz of polenta (or medium grind cornmeal)
pinch of salt
pinch of allspice
pinch of cinnamon
60z plain flour

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a nine inch cake tin, it is advisable to use greaseproof paper to avoid burning.
Mix together the carrot, egg yolk, ginger, honey, olive oil and vanilla essence.
Add the dry ingredients.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold into the carrot and flour mixture.
Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 35 -45 minutes, until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack and enjoy.
Fold into the carrot mixture.