Unbought Delicacies: Carrot cake recipe

Monday, 9 February 2009

Carrot cake recipe

I made two of these on Saturday - one gone already LOL. The recipe I use is from Cranks Recipe Book:

Cranks Carrot Cake
6 oz carrots
2 eggs
4 oz sugar
3 fl oz vegetable oil
4 oz flour
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teasp ground nutmeg
2 oz desiccated coconut
2oz raisins
Grease and line a loaf tin. Grate carrots finely. Whisk eggs and sugar together until thick and creamy, then gradually add the oil, still whisking. Then add remaining ingredients, mix throughly and pour into prepared tin. Bake in a hit oven for 30 - 35 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Ice with orange icing if you like.
The original recipe in the book uses raw brown sugar and wholemeal flour, but I use what I have on the cupboard.

See here for more on carrot cake:

http://mrslsnoshtalgia.blogspot.com/

5 comments:

Juliette said...: Thank you for the recipe - but what is 400z sugar?; 11 February 2009 at 18:08
allybea said...: I made this yesterday and it was yummy. There's not much left today. I assumed you meant 4 oz of sugar and it worked out fine; 15 February 2009 at 11:21
MrsL said...: Whoops - sorry about that! Typo. Should read 4 oz sugar.

Thanks for noticing, allybea, have corrected it now. :)

MrsL; 16 February 2009 at 07:39
Anonymous said...: The flour should be self-raising, otherwise you should add a raising agent like bicarb or baking powder. I've been making Cranks carrot cake for almost 30 years, but am in the States without my cookbook so have checked the internet. Thank you for making it available.; 18 March 2012 at 00:05
Anonymous said...: P.S. Forgot to mention that the flour should not only be self-raising but also WHOLEWHEAT. Cranks recipes never use white flour.; 24 March 2012 at 19:20

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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Monday, 9 February 2009

Carrot cake recipe

5 comments: