Tag: Cookery

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Bakes Recipes

Dorset Apple Cake

This time of year finds apples growing on the trees – fresh, crisp and a joy to bite into. Below is a photo of some I picked this week from the trees in our garden.

Having recently returned from a stay in the county of Dorset (see Dorset Calling) I had the idea of incorporating some of our apples in a classic British bake – the Dorset Apple Cake. You can see it in my main photo at the top of this post. It went down well with the family – there were already a few slices cut from it before I could take the photo!

Serve it on its own with a cup of tea, or with a few spoonfuls of Greek Yoghurt.

Servings

Around 16 slices.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 1h 25 mins to bake.

You Will Need

  • 225g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • 140g light brown sugar
  • 150g spread or margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 medium sized crisp eating apples
  • demerara sugar to sprinkle over
  • flaked almonds to sprinkle

Method

  1. Switch the oven on to 160C and grease/line a 20 cm diameter baking tin.
  2. Put the flour, baking powder, salt, and mixed spice in a bowl and stir with a spoon. Add the apple, chopped, and stir again so that all the apple pieces are coated in the floury mix. Add in the sugar, spread and eggs, and use an electric mixer to combine.
  3. Tip into the prepared tin and level with a spatula so it reaches the sides. Sprinkle the demerara over.
  4. Place in the oven for 1 hour.
  5. Remove and sprinkle the flaked almonds over. Put back in the oven, still at 160C, for 20 mins.
  6. Remove and leave to cool off in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices (see photo below) to serve.

Customise It!

If you wish to cut down on the sugar content, feel free to omit the demerara topping. I left the peel on the apple so that the cake included a little more fibre, but you can remove it with a peeler if you prefer.

Many countries and cultures have their own recipes for apple bakes, including this one for Austrian Apple Cake posted previously on ADK.

Time to add another track to the ADK Playlist. I saw this band a few weeks back when they were supporting the Arctic Monkeys, and they were great. I did say I would feature them, so here they are: this is The Hives with Hate to Say I Told You So.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Blackberry & Coconut Crumble Squares

If you venture down to our local woods at the moment, you may get something of a surprise. No, not those pesky bears picnicking again – the hedgerows are laden with blackberries, and most of them are ripe for picking.

Why is that a surprise? Well, around here, picking blackberries is usually an end of August/early September activity. However, many of these plump beauties have been ripe and ready since mid-July, with plenty more yet to ripen – see my photo below. I should be harvesting these for a few weeks to come.

I mentioned in my recent Plum & Almond Slices post that our plums are also ready much earlier than usual. We hear a lot these days about how our climate is changing, so I guess this is just one more example.

Ever the opportunist, I sprang down to the woods with my bowl and came back with a good 300g, see below.

Within a matter of hours they had been incorporated in a traybake with desiccated coconut, the berries bursting as they bake to release all that lovely jammy juice into the cake. It is topped with a crumble mix and sprinkled with nuts and seeds (see my main photo at the top of this post).

I based this substantially on a recipe I found in BBC Good Food, although it’s been adapted to my tastes in the usual ADK way.

Servings

This makes 20 squares.

Timings

25 mins to pick the berries, 15 mins to prepare and 30 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 300g fresh blackberries
  • 250g self-raising flour
  • 25g oats
  • 140g soft brown sugar
  • 200g baking spread or margarine
  • 75g desiccated coconut
  • 2 eggs
  • a few handfuls of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and chopped nuts

Method

  1. Wash the blackberries in a sieve under running water, and drain.
  2. Turn the oven on to 180C. Grease and line a baking tray. Mine is 22cm square.
  3. Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the oats, sugar and spread. Mix it all up with the fingers of both hands till it forms little clumps of crumble mixture. Remove about enough to fill a mug or small cup, and set aside.
  4. Add the coconut to the bowl and stir in to mix, then add in the eggs. Stir to combine.
  5. Scrape the mixture into the tray and spread out with a spatula so it meets all four sides. Spread the berries in a layer on top.
  6. Next pick up the pieces of crumble that you set aside and dot them over the berries. Finally, sprinkle over a few handfuls of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and chopped nuts. Aim for an even and consistent spread of crumble and sprinkles across the whole of the traybake.
  7. Bake for 30 mins or until done i.e. when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean with no wet mixture attached. Remove and allow to cool substantially in the warm tray, before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
  8. When cool, cut into squares. Eat while fresh – they will all be gone within a day or two!

Customise It!

A large part of the fun of this dish is picking the blackberries, and then baking and eating them while they are so fresh. If you don’t have blackberry bushes to hand, however, you could still use other soft fruit, like raspberries or blueberries.

You can also vary the sprinkled topping to incorporate any particular faves. Next time I make this (and there will be more blackberries to come) I am tempted to add some broken up squares of white chocolate.

What music has been playing in the ADK Kitchen this week? Fear of Music, the great album by Talking Heads has been having a few plays, as I hadn’t heard it for a while. It really is a classic and I could choose many tracks to add to the Playlist. I’ll settle on this one, which I especially like for Tina Weymouth’s bassline – Cities by Talking Heads.

Categories
Bakes Desserts

Summer Berry Burst Muffins

This post sees seasonal summer berries, such as strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, generously packed into a cake muffin. The berries burst with joy as they bake, giving each muffin a unique, jammy appearance (as shown in my photo above) and a delicious, juicy, fruity taste.

It truly is food to put a smile on your face!

Servings

12 muffins.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 25 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 220g plain flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • half tsp salt
  • 110g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 240ml milk
  • 90ml vegetable oil
  • 60g oats
  • 150g fresh berries (such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or blackberries)

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C. Prepare a muffin tin or mould for baking.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a bowl. Stir in the berries and ensure all are covered in the floury mix.
  3. Break the egg into a second bowl and add the milk, veg oil and oats. Give it a good stir.
  4. Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir till combined, with no dry ingredients showing. Spoon the batter into your mould or tin, and bake for 25 mins at 180C.
  5. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Customise it!

Other berries or soft fruit can be substituted – but please keep it fresh and local, going with what is in season in your area.

I did say this was food to put a smile on your face, so let’s keep that theme going with our latest musical choice. A Rush of Blood to the Head is still my favourite album by Coldplay. They have done some terrific stuff since, but in my view they have never bettered it. Here’s one of the many great tracks from the album – God Put A Smile Upon Your Face.

Categories
Bakes Mains

Leek, Bacon & Stilton Flan

It’s the time of year for quiche, eaten warm or cold while sitting on the patio in the summer sun. Perhaps enjoying a glass of fresh Elderflower over ice, or maybe even something stronger.

For me, leek, bacon and Stilton cheese is always a winning blend in a dish. The deep oniony taste of the silky, buttery leeks complements the saltiness of the bacon and the creaminess of the cheese. As my photo above (taken in the back garden sun) shows, the greeny blue hues of the toasted topped flan just make you want to tuck into a slice.

Serve this as a main accompanied by some side salads. If you need some ideas, check out Beetroot, Feta and Walnut Salad with Bulgar and Quinoa, Crunchy Fruit and Nut Pilaff, or Royal Blood Orange Salad.

Servings

4 adult portions.

Timings

The whole process takes around an hour: 10 mins to make the pastry, 10 mins to chill, another 10 mins to blind bake the pastry base, and then 25 mins to bake the flan.

You Will Need

  • 225g plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 100g spread or margarine
  • 2 – 3 tbsp cold water
  • 2 leeks
  • a knob of butter
  • 3 slices of bacon
  • 100g Stilton cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 50g milk
  • a few twists of black pepper

Method

  1. Turn the oven to 180C. Grease and line a flan dish – the one I used (in the photo) is 22cm diameter.
  2. Sieve the flour and salt into a food processor with blade fitted, and add in the spread. Blitz until it resembles the texture of breadcrumbs. Add a few drops of the water until it binds into a lump of soft pastry.
  3. Tip out and wrap in cling film. Place in the fridge to chill for 10 mins.
  4. Meanwhile, wash the leeks and chop into a saucepan with the butter. Place over a gentle heat so that they soften in the melted butter.
  5. Chop the bacon into pieces and fry till browned and crispy.
  6. Take the pastry from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface to a size that fits your flan dish. Fit it into the dish and trim off any overhanging excess. Place a crumpled piece of baking paper inside and fill with ceramic baking beans. Place in the oven for 10 mins.
  7. Remove from the oven and discard the paper/ beans, taking care as they will be hot. Spread the softened leeks and bacon over the base, then crumble over the Stilton cheese.
  8. Mix the beaten eggs, milk and pepper in a jug, and pour carefully into the flan. Place in the oven for 25mins until cooked.
  9. Remove and serve hot, if you wish, or let it go cold. Serve it al fresco, with salads and cold drinks.

Customise it!

As I’ve said, I regard leek, bacon and Stilton as a classic taste combo, so wouldn’t change it. However, you could add other green veg for the leeks if you wish – broccoli would go well. You could also add grated cheddar or another favourite cheese, in place of the Stilton.

Music time. Here’s a song I really like from a new artist for the Playlist – Ladyhawke, with Black White and Blue. Maybe not quite the colours of my Leek, Bacon and Stilton Flan, but still a great track nonetheless!

Categories
Bakes Desserts Recipes

Plum & Almond Slices

This week I received a harvest of the first plums of the summer. They are plump, juicy and a magnificent purplish colour (see below). Isn’t nature wonderful – Artificial Intelligence (AI) can do more and more things nowadays, but it can’t produce these (yet).

I will return to the subject of AI in a few moments.

I decided to combine the plums with ground and flaked almonds in a traybake, cut into slices to have with a cup of tea or coffee, as shown in my main photo at the top of this post.

The slightly tart taste of these early plums complements the rich, velvety, amaretto-ish, marzipanny taste of the egg and almonds. Delish!

Servings

16 slices.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 30 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 125g self-raising flour
  • half tsp salt
  • 80g ground almonds
  • 170g baking spread or margarine
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp almond essence
  • 300g plums, de-stoned and chopped into rough pieces
  • a few handfuls of flaked almonds

Method

  1. Grease a baking tray and line it with baking paper. The one I used is 22cm square. Turn the oven on to warm up to 180C.
  2. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl, and stir in the ground almonds.
  3. Combine the spread and sugar in a second bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add in the eggs and whisk, one at a time, and then the almond essence.
  4. Combine the contents of the two bowls and fold in.
  5. Spread a few spoonfuls of the cake mixture over the bottom of the baking dish and spread out so it is flat.
  6. Pour the plum pieces into the rest of the cake mixture in the bowl, and fold in. Add the plummy cake mix to the baking tray. Level it out with a spatula, then sprinkle the flaked almonds over. Press the flaked almonds down gently with the back of a fork, so that they adhere to the mixture.
  7. Bake for 30 mins at 180C. Then remove and allow to cool a little in the tin, before transferring to a wire rack.
  8. When completely cooled, cut into slices.

Customise It!

If you don’t have plums to hand, try other soft fruit, like cherries or berries.

Like me, you may have noticed that we are hearing more and more these days about the growth of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, and that it will be taking over more and more jobs and tasks that are carried out by humans.

Mmmm. I’ve been wondering whether AI could come up with a recipe such as Plum & Almond Slices, and then bake it? Would it seriously be bothered carefully trimming around the stones in a pile of plums with a sharp knife? And if so, would it lick the batter left on the spatula and in the bowl once its put the traybake in the oven? If not, it would be missing out on a special treat, and that certainly isn’t my definition of progress.

Turning to the ADK Playlist, I was intrigued to find out recently that I have a new, AI personalised DJ on Spotify. His name is Xavier and he presents a continuous stream of music curated from my listening over previous years, with new tracks that he thinks I may also like. If I want to skip a track, I just ask him and he moves on to introduce the next song.

He hasn’t completely mastered my tastes so far, but I am sure it is only a matter of time. Interestingly, I didn’t ask for him to start doing this – he just appeared one day on my app.

It reminded me of this track by Leftfield, called Machines Like Me, which contains the line Machines, they’re taking over. Maybe I’ll ask Xavier if he knows it.

Categories
Blog Snacks

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Summer is cricket season, and there are few better ways to spend a warm, sunny evening than going to a Twenty 20 (T20) match. Especially so when you take along a rye sourdough doorstep sandwich, with pastrami, pickles, salad and mustard mayo, as shown in my photo above.

What’s the back story to my Pastrami Blast sandwich, as I call it? Read on.

In the T20 Blast (as the competition is called), each team has only 20 overs (i.e. 120 bowls) and about 90 minutes in which to score runs. The solemnity and gentle patience of Test cricket (which is played out over 5 days) goes out the window, as the batsmen try to whack as many shots as possible over the boundaries and into the crowd. The whole affair is accompanied by lots of cheering, whooping, hollering, bursts of fire, pop music etc. You get the picture.

Food and drink is an important part of the enjoyment. There is a good variety of outlets on offer at our local ground, and fans are free to bring in their own food if they wish.

When I was in Australia this winter (their summer) I enjoyed following the Aussie version of T20, which is aptly entitled The Big Bash. Adopting the Melbourne Renegades as my team, I saw them play home games at the Marvel Stadium. It is quite something having Marvel as your stadium sponsor – see my photo below. Who needs security guards or CCTV when you have Iron Man (in Hulkbuster guise from Avengers: Age of Ultron) making sure no spectators step out of line?

The T20 Blast reminds me a lot of baseball, which I have enjoyed watching on visits to the US, at the home stadia of the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.

I’m reminded of a meal I bought while at the Mets Stadium, billed as Hot Dog and Chips. Seeing the word Chips in place of the standard fare of French Fries that was on offer at every other American diner, I presumed the Mets were offering fans the plump, deep fried fingers of actual potato that we are more used to eating in the UK. Imagine my surprise when I found my Hot Dog to be served with what we in the UK would call a bag of crisps. Two nations separated by the same language, eh?

My most recent visit to the T20 Blast was to see my local team, Hampshire Hawks, play the Essex Eagles. With thoughts of baseball in my mind, I decided to make and take in my own deluxe sandwich, influenced by some of the great varieties I have enjoyed in New York delis. Here’s how I made my Pastrami Blast.

I began with a generously sized portion of freshly baked rye sourdough bread, and lined it with a blend of white wine mustard and mayo. To this I added about 5 slices of pastrami and some pickles.

Next up are sliced tomatoes and chopped scallions (or spring onions) picked fresh from the garden. The inside of the upper slice is also now lined with mustard mayo.

Next, I added pieces of crunchy iceberg lettuce, and pressed it all together.

Wrapped in foil, I opened it up at the game (see my main photo at the top of the post), enjoying it with a pint of East Coast IPA from the bar, and (you guessed it) a bag of chips i.e. potato crisps.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the baseball games I’ve been to in the US – watching the sporting drama unfold on the pitch, savouring the continuous round of hot dogs, beers and sodas, and observing the customs that are so much a part of the game’s culture. One is the 7th Inning Stretch, where the spectators are encouraged to partake in communal aerobic exercise (presumably to help work off all the calories consumed during innings 1 to 6).

There is also the singing of this classic, which I am adding to the ADK Playlist. In a rather neat closing link, I am going to see Billy Joel play live at Hyde Park in London this weekend. Wonder if he will play Take Me Out To The Ball Game?

Categories
Sides

Royal Blood Orange Salad

Now here’s a vibrantly coloured salad to liven up your patio table and get your summer lunch guests talking.

Slices of fresh orange are combined with wafer thin slivers of raw beetroot, in a sweet and sour dressing, topped with roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds infused with the taste of fennel.

The inspiration came from a chef I admire a lot, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. That deep shade of purpley-red that the fruit takes on from the beetroot juices (see my photo above) reminded me of blood oranges. As the music of Brighton duo, Royal Blood, was playing a lot in the ADK Kitchen when I was making this, I decided to call it my Royal Blood Orange Salad.

Still with me? Here’s how it’s made.

Servings

This is a side salad, rather than a main. Along with other salads as part of a summer lunch table, it will serve 4 people.

Timings

10 mins to chop and prepare, before leaving to marinate for 2 hours before serving. 15 mins to make the roasted seed topping, which is added just before serving.

You Will Need

  • 2 small beetroot, raw
  • 2 medium sized fresh oranges
  • 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp soft brown sugar
  • seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

For the roasted seed topping:

  • 2 tbsp fennel seeds
  • half tsp seasalt
  • 1 and a half tsp caster sugar
  • 40g pumpkin seeds
  • 40g sunflower seeds
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil

Method

  1. Peel the outer skin from the beetroot. Using a vegetable peeler, cut the beetroot into wafer thin slivers.
  2. Trim the top and bottom off each orange. Then, standing each orange on a chopping board, trim off the skin and pith, leaving a fleshy orange ball. Cut horizontally into slices about 1cm thick.
  3. Put the beetroot and orange in a bowl and add the white wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss to combine, and place in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.
  4. Meanwhile, prepare the seed topping. Begin by pre-heating the oven to 180C.
  5. Using a pestle and mortar, grind the fennel seeds, salt and sugar to a fine powder. Then place the powder in a bowl with the pumpkin and sunflower seeds, oil and 1 tbsp water, and stir to combine.
  6. Line an oven tray with baking paper, and spread the seed mix out upon it. Place in the oven for about 8 mins.
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  8. Remove the marinated orange and beetroot from the fridge, giving it a gentle stir. Sprinkle the cooled seed mix over and serve.

Customise It!

Mmm, an interesting one! There’s quite a delicate mix of flavours and colours in here, so I’m wary of messing too much with it. There is something faintly oriental about the sweet and sour dressing, so the next time I make this I think I will try Chinese 5 spice in place of the fennel seeds and see how that goes.

The roasted seed mix I really liked, so much so that I kept some for snacking on (see my photo below). It was also great as a topping sprinkled over muesli at breakfast time.

I was experimenting with this salad in the days before seeing Muse at Milton Keynes Bowl (see Hysteria for more). Royal Blood were supporting Muse at the concert, and I was playing their music in the ADK Kitchen in preparation for seeing them live.

They were great to see, and went down very well with the 65,000 crowd. I was particularly interested to see if and how Mike Kerr could reproduce that distinctive sound when playing live. If you haven’t heard them, he manages to draw a very expansive range from one bass guitar, making it sound like he is playing two or more guitars. I noticed he was making a lot of use of foot pedals to achieve distortion. Incredibly, he could produce chords by simply banging the frame of the guitar with his fist, without touching any of the strings.

Royal Blood are popular, well regarded and critically acclaimed. It is very much deserved. Here they are with Boilermaker.

Categories
Blog

Fresh Strawberries

This time of year, paying a visit to a Pick Your Own (PYO) Strawberry Farm can be a lot of fun for all the family. Just look at this character greeting us on arrival this week at our local PYO – how could one resist?

The previous occasion when I visited a PYO Farm was Christmas Eve. We were in Victoria State, Australia, and had decided to make fresh strawberries the pudding course in the dinner for 9 that we were hosting on Christmas Day. Strawberries for Christmas? It sounds a bit weird to we northern hemisphere types. Even more so when the PYO Farm’s festive musical accompaniment to the strawberry picking includes Shakin’ Stevens belting out Snow is falling, All around us… (What? There was a bright blue sky and it was 30C).

Just to put any concerns at rest, let me make clear that this post will not conclude with me adding Shaky to the ADK Playlist. Phew!

This week’s trip was to Pickwell Farm in Southampton. The coastal area stretching east from the city’s outskirts towards the village of Hamble has been a soft fruit growing area for decades.

As my photos below show, the strawberry plants are plentiful, and the fruit ripe and rich in colour.

Here is the haul from our visit – a kilo and a half of fresh strawberries.

The kilo has been made into jam, by boiling the fruit in water with preserving sugar. The half has been made into fresh ice cream – I used the recipe I posted last summer which you can check out here. Alternatively, you could make Eton Rifles Mess!

Do you have a Pick Your Own Farm near you? If so, why not check it out. With the fruit still on the stalks, you can be assured of optimum freshness, and be your own boss of quality control. You will be doing your bit to support local businesses and reducing food miles. What’s more, the prices should be much less than you’ll pay in the supermarket (hey, there must be some trade-off for providing all that manual labour!) Best of all, it is a really fun activity.

I toyed with adding Strawberry Fields Forever to the ADK Playlist with this post. However, good though the Beatles are, they aren’t really my era, so I’m going instead for a fave Scottish band, Franz Ferdinand. This is Fresh Strawberries.

Categories
Recipes Snacks

Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil Baguettes

I was lucky enough to enjoy today’s dish (shown above) on a lunchtime visit to the home of my good friends, Kelvin and Eva. It was another hot day and we had just been for a walk in the shade of the woods to cool down. We sat under the parasol in the back garden and enjoyed these amazing toasted baguettes.

I am pleased to say that Eva has agreed to write a guest post sharing the recipe. Over to Eva!

——————

One of my favourite hot weather snacks for this year is Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil Baguettes. I used to make a lunch dish with mozzarella, a few tomatoes and fresh basil just spread out on a plate, served with a balsamic dressing. However, since eating this version on holiday in Tenerife, while overlooking the sea, with the sound of the waves and the fragrant smells of the flowers and trees nearby, I am now a convert to this version of the Italian starter.

You Will Need:

  • One fresh baguette
  • One good quality buffalo mozzarella cheese
  • 2-3 ripe tomatoes
  • A hand full of fresh basil leaves
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Olive oil
  • Sea salt
  • Balsamic glaze

Method

  1. Cut the baguette into 15 cm long sections and slice through each section to make two halves.
  2. Put the inside of each slice under a grill to crisp it up.
  3. Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella, and arrange them on top of each baguette half, finishing with the basil leaves.
  4. Sprinkle some sea salt over each slice along with a generous drizzle of good quality balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
  5. To make it look even more appetising, I finish with a balsamic glaze!
  6. The perfect drink for me to accompany this little snack is a cool glass of French Rosé! A truly European feast!

As a guest poster on A Different Kitchen, I get to choose the latest track for adding to Kevin’s Playlist. Having been given the inspiration for this dish on holiday, it has to be my favourite Spanish song which we heard played and sung several times on our walks along the promenade. It’s a very catchy song and you won’t be able to get it out of your head for some time!!

This is La Camisa Negra  (the black shirt) by Juanes.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Carrot & Orange Traybake

Give the humble carrot a whole new taste twist in this delicious traybake!

Coarsely grated, carrot helps the cake mixture to stay moist, and adds texture. Together with soft brown sugar and a dusting of cinnamon, the cake is firmly on the brown/orange/cream colour spectrum, which I find very pleasing, and very 1970s.

What’s more, flavouring the soft cheese frosting with orange gives me a basis for adding one of my favourite ever bands to the ADK Playlist.

More of the music in a moment. First of all, here’s how to make Carrot & Orange Traybake.

Servings

How many individual portions this makes depends on how small (or large!) you decide to cut the slices. Mine made around 20 slices, each about 6cm x 4cm, to fill two tins, one of which is shown below.

Timings

10 – 15 mins to prepare the mixture, and 25 mins to bake in the oven at 180C. Add 10 mins for the orange frosting.

You Will Need

  • 225g butter or spread
  • 225g soft brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 225g self-raising flour
  • half tsp salt
  • 3 tsps mixed spice
  • 300g carrots

For the orange frosting:

  • 100g butter, softened
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 200g soft cream cheese
  • 1 tsp orange extract
  • cinnamon for dusting

Method

  1. Turn the oven on at 180C. Grease and line a baking tin (the one I used is 23cm square).
  2. Put the softened butter and sugar together in a bowl and mix with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
  3. Add in the eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of the flour after each one. Mix in each time, using the whisk.
  4. Add in the rest of the flour, the salt and mixed spice, and fold in with a spatula to incorporate.
  5. Grate the carrots – I used an electric food processor with grating tool fitted. Add the grated carrot into the mix and fold in again with the spatula. Make sure that all the grated carrot is wet with a coating of the mixture.
  6. Scrape the mixture into the baking tin and level the surface. Put in the oven for around 25 mins, until it is golden all over and a skewer put into the middle of the cake comes out dry.
  7. Let it cool in the tin for about 30 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to complete the cooling.
  8. Make the orange frosting by putting all the ingredients in a bowl and mixing together with an electric whisk.
  9. When the cake has completely cooled, transfer to a chopping board. Spread the frosting evenly over the top, and dust with a little cinnamon. Cut into slices and keep in a box or tin till they’re all eaten. That won’t be long, however.

Customise it!

If you wish, you could use chopped walnuts to sprinkle over, in place of the cinnamon. I used orange extract as it gives an intense flavour, but if you like you could use a little orange juice, and/or zest in the frosting, instead.

Did someone say Orange Juice? Here’s Edwyn and the lads with Felicity.