Does Easter Bunny Like Carrot and Walnut Cake?

Easter Break. 5 days off. The perfect time to do some baking.

Today Mum made me an offer - She would cook me a roast dinner if I baked dessert. DEAL.

It only seemed fitting to bake a Carrot Cake for Easter. And after all the chocolate eggs I've eaten today, I just couldn't face anything else made from chocolate.

The trouble with baking in a foreign kitchen is that the entire process seems to take twice as long. I was playing an impromptu game of 'Hide and Seek' - Me versus various kitchen utensils and ingredients. (The quarter cup measuring cup wins... I never found it and had to guess 3/4 cups of oil).

As I was at mum's house, I didn't have any of my trusty recipe books to rely on. Instead, I put all my faith in Google and ended up using a recipe from Best Recipes.

Ingredients

2 carrots

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1tsp bi-carb soda

1/2tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup oil

1/2 cup golden syrup

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 170

Sift the flours, bi-carb soda and cinnamon into a large bowl

Whisk brown sugar, oil, golden syrup, eggs and vanilla in separate bowl

Pour oil mixture into dry ingredients and combined gently

Add carrots and walnuts; mix

Pour into greased cake tin and cook for 1 hour

Now here's the embarassing part where I confess that as a kid I thought that when I grew up, I would have my own cooking show. I used to comentate as I baked, as if there was a camera filming my every measurement. Even now I talk out loud when I'm in the kitchen. But that's because Emmy my Miniature Schnauzer is usually at my feet and she is a huge fan of MasterChef...

Anyway... I took quite a few photos with my iphone as I measured and mixed, but so that you all don't fall asleep infront of the computer, here are a few summary snaps --

All the ingrediants required.
(Finding them in mum's pantry was probably the most time consuming step in the entire baking process.)

Combining the wet ingrediants with the dry.
(Everybody loves a good 'action' shot.)

2 grated carrots.

Ta-Dahh. The End Result.

Delicious

The icing was a cream cheese icing made with 125g philly cheese, 50g unsalted butter and 300g icing sugar. I also mixed in some lemon juice and a pinch of vanilla sugar.

And the best part ?? It's CARROT cake, which means it's totally healthy. 

I'll be leaving some out for the Easter Bunny tonight, but if he doesn't eat it, I will be eating carrot cake for breakfast tomorrow. YUM.

Anyone else getting their bake on this Easter ?

xx