Baking A Moist Carrot Cake

I have been craving a deliciously moist carrot cake for over a week. Normally I would wait for such a craving to pass, but when this one didn't I decided that there was nothing else to do, but to bake it. I have been wanting to experiment with my proven recipe for a while and today was going to give me the opportunity to do so. It was everything I hoped for, satisfied my craving, and was such a hit with the family that I decided to blog the recipe for your benefit as well. Fortunately I had gotten into the habit of taking photos of everything I make or bake, making it easy to blog about those things that turn out too good not to share!

Add 2 cups (500 ml) cake flour, 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder and 1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking soda to a mixing bowl.

Add 2 teaspoons (10 ml) cinnamon powder, 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt and 1/2 teaspoon (2,5 ml) pimento to the bowl.

Add 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) brown sugar to the bowl. Mix all the dry  ingredients well.

Add 1/4 cup (60 ml) each sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to the bowl. This is my new addition to the existing recipe and you may leave it out, if it is not to your liking, but I found that it added lovely flavour to the cake and will bake it with these added in future.

You really want to use walnuts or pecan nuts in a carrot cake, but as I did not have either of these in the house, I settled for 1/2 cup (125 ml) cashews and ...

1/2 cup (125 ml) cashews. Chop the nuts roughly before adding it to the bowl.

Peel and grate two large carrots. Add these to the bowl.

Add a tin of crushed pineapples with its juice to the mixing bowl.

Break 4 eggs into the bowl.

Add 1 1/4 cup (185 ml) sunflower oil to the bowl.

Mix everything well.

Prepare a cake tin with non-stick spray. It is always better to bake a heavy cake in a tin that has a hole in the center as it can easily bake unevenly because of its weight, being cooked on the outside, while still raw in the center.

Pour the cake mix into the cake tin. I kept some of the cake mix aside for smaller cupcakes as a treat for the younger kids. Bake for about 45 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 °C.

In the meantime, you can prepare the frosting. Soften 50 g butter and add it to a mixing bowl, along with a container of plain smooth cottage cheese.

Add 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla essence to the bowl.

Add 2 cups (500 ml) icing sugar to the bowl. I strongly suggest you sift these to get rid of clumps in the sugar.

Mix everything together.

My cupcakes came out of the oven a good 15 minutes before the cake was done.

Finally the cake was also ready to come out. Let it sit in the tin for a few minutes to loosen from the sides.

Turn the cake out on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Decorate with icing. If you love the sweetness of icing, you may want to decorate the sides as well. This is personal choice.

Decorate as you please and enjoy. This cake is actually better the day after you've baked it as the spices will develop more fully when you let it sit for a while.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
For more crafty ideas and great products, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.

Cardmaking: Combining Odd Patterns Into A Single Card

Most of us have been raised to believe that you can not use two floral patterns together and that if you have one strong dominant pattern, that you should use plain colours with it. This is a good general rule of thumb, but it is possible to combine a multitude of patterns successfully if you keep certain design principles in mind. I show you how to do this in today's blog when I make a multi-patterned card.

I start this card from a patterned A4 cardboard that is printed on one side only.

The carboard is trimmed to fit inside the envelope I will slip the card into.

The cardboard is then scored down the center where the fold will be.

The card is folded over a ruler to ensure a neat fold line.

Make sure to test the fit of the card in the envelope before continuing. Changes can easily be made at this stage, but may require more effort at the end of the project!

Not liking the idea of a plain white card on the inside, I trim an A4 paper to measure 0,5 cm smaller than the card in width as well as length. This paper will be placed inside the card, breaking the monotony of the white paper.

 
Fold the paper in half and put some double-sided tape along one side of the fold.

Stick the paper inside the card.

You now have a much more interesting surface to write your message on.

The base of my card is a very colourful and very strong pattern that is extremely busy. Normally I would only use plain colours with this. But today, I will add loads of other patterns to it. I start with a plain glitter paper that repeats one of the colours in the base card. This plain paper has had a pattern punched into it, which has resulted in this now also counting as a patterned paper. As the 'transparent' pattern allows the original pattern to show through, there is little effort required to make this work effectively. Cut the glitter strip to size.

Attach it to the card with double-sided tape.

My next pattern is an absolute clash with the original, but the fact that I am staying in the same colour range, allows me to add this successfully.

I now add yet another crazy pattern to the mix, but this time I use vellum, allowing the pattern underneath to 'blend' with the new one that is added.

The Washi Tape I add also has a floral pattern, but once again, it is transparent. I make sure to stick it over three of the patterns used, bringing these patterns into a unity.

My layout has been directing the eyes to a focal point and this is the area where I add a metal embellishment in the shape of an elephant. Strictly speaking, the elephant is yet another pattern, but as it reflects the colours and patterns in its surroundings, it easily blends into the whole. I use Tombow Glue to stick the embellishment onto the card.

I cut a speech bubble from coordinating plain paper and write a birthday message on this with a Staedtler Fine Liner.

The speech bubble is attached to the card with 3D Tape. As the message of the card has a playful tone, these colours and patterns go a long way to support the idea of fun and playfulness!

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
For more crafty ideas and great products, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.

Baking A Kumquat Marmalade Butter Cake

This recipe happened as a result of having bought some kumquats that were too sour to eat. I played around with a number of ideas and decided to turn the fruit into a lovely marmalade. However, as everyone was begging me to bake them a cake, I decided to bake a plain butter cake and to use the marmalade as a topping for the cake. It turned out beautifully and this may very well be my new favourite marmalade. You can, of course, use the marmalade on toast as well!

Weigh the fruit that you have to work with. Mine weighed 300 g.

Cut the Kumquats in slices.

Weigh sugar to equal the weight of the fruit. This meant that I would use 300 g sugar as well.  Add the fruit slices and the sugar to a pot.

Add a teaspoon (5 ml) cinnamon, 2 ml Pimento and 1 ml Nutmeg to the pot.

Add 2 cups (500 ml) water to the pot.

Grate the rind of 1 lemon and add it to the pot.

Squeeze the lemon juice of one lemon and add it to the pot. This will assist the marmalade in getting sticky.

Bring to the boil while stirring continually. Then turn the heat down to medium and stir occasionally.

In the meantime, you can start on the butter cake. I did not have butter or baking margarine in the house and simply replaced this with an equal amount of oil. The recipe asked for 125 g butter. I added 125 ml oil. This is a brilliant tip to remember should you ever find yourself in the same predicament as I did.

I added 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) sugar to the oil and beat it with an electric mixer.

I then added 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla essence and continued beating it.

I then added 3 eggs, one at a time, continuing to mix all the while.

Now it was time to add the dry ingredients. Sieve together 2 1/2 cups (625 ml) cake flour, 4 teaspoons (20 ml) baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon (2,5 ml) salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.

Measure 200 ml milk and add this to the mixing bowl as well.

Mix everything together.

Prepare a cake tin with non-stick spray and pour the mixture into the tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 35 minutes.

In the meantime, you can check on the marmalade. You will see that the fruit will have softened and if you were making marmalade for spreading on bread, now would be the time to remove it from the heat and pour it into sterilized bottles. I kept mine on the stove to thicken even more for using it on the cake.

Remove the cake from the oven once the test pin comes out clean.

Let the cake sweat in the tin for 5 minutes before removing it from the tin. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Top with your slightly cooled down marmalade.

Serve with custard as a pudding. or as is with coffee or tea.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
For more crafty ideas and great products, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.