mmm...cake

finally, after a busy weekend, farewelling some dear friends who are leaving us for sunny queensland, and having some other dear friends stay over, I had time today to take it a bit easy and spend some much needed time at home with my little companion. We even managed to do some baking, which I'm trying to get around to at least once a week now, the only problem being agreeing with said companion on what to bake. I had explicit instructions to make chocolate cake (we discussed it all the way to school and back when dropping off fin), but managed to divert his attention for long enough when we got home to go ahead and start on a carrot cake (I like to pretend that's a healthy alternative). By the time he realised what was going on, I had the carrots grated and the fun underway, and he was happy to join in with the mixing...and tasting. Not wanting to actually go out and buy the ingredients I didn't have (this was actually meant to be a carrot cake with pineapple and pecans), I decided to do a little improvising, so I thought I might share my recipe, since it turned out really good, although it appears that willow prefers raw cake mix to the cooked version. Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Carrot and Apple Cake

2 medium carrots, peeled and grated

2 apples, peeled and grated

1/3 cup vege. oil (because that's all I had)

1/2 cup melted butter (that's the part that had me most concerned about whether improvising was such a great idea)

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups caster sugar (not so healthy after all)

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. baking powder

Combine oil, cooled butter, eggs, vanilla, carrot, apple and sugar in a large bowl. Sift in flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Stir until combined.

Pour mixture into prepared pan, ( I used a 15 x 27 cm loaf pan, which was perfect, but of course, being the naturally gifted cook that I am, I knew it would be), bake at 175 degrees c for about an hour. When cool, spread with cream cheese frosting. For this I used about 100g cream cheese, 1 cup icing sugar, the zest of half a lemon and a squeeze of lemon juice. Enjoy!