Yesterday was full of cooking in preparation for my partner's birthday. The main course is one I have shared before ~ chicken & veggie wraps. I am glad yo say they turned out perfectly.
The carrot cake, however, was a new recipe to me and I was a bit nervous. In the morning I got all the ingredients together for the cake.
The first thing I did was go out and harvest walnuts in the backyard as they are just starting to fall from the tree. The recipe I loosely followed said 100 grams of walnuts or pecans are needed.
After cracking then open and removing the shell I let the walnuts soak while I prepared the ingredients for the batter:
3 eggs, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I chose olive) 1 cup of whole wheat flour, a half cup of brown sugar ~ I mixed all the batter together.
Then I added 1 large carrot totally shreded to the batter alongside the soaked then toasted walnuts and chopped crystalized ginger. I let the whole thing rest for a while as the oven and baking dish preheated.
At the very last moment I added a teaspoon of baking soda, greased the pan and poured in the batter. The cake cooked for 30 minutes in the toaster overn while I frantically cooked the main course.
I wish it werent so but, I tend to loose my chill vibe when expected to cook for others. And as we had a surprise visitor for the birthday lunch I was even more stressed. For this reason I wasnt able to take photos of the actual icing but, here is the recipe:
100 grams of soft, unsalted butter, 1 cup (~100 grams) of cream, 80 grams of blonde sugar. Ideally an electric batter would be used but, I dont have one and wisked as fast as possible by hand.
In the end it worked out great!! Lunch of spring wraps with a garden salad was yummy and the double layer cake with crystalized ginger and toastef walnuts sprinkled atop was just perfect!
