Obsession

Am extremely happy today. Have discovered Nigel Slater's Real Food on Youtube (under TV, Food and then it streams from 4 on Demand) http://www.youtube.com/shows?p=None&s=sftv&b=23 But, other little things I've been up to. Made a carrot cake today. The originating recipe was from James Martin's Desserts, however I made some fairly dramatic changes to it. None of the decoration, a different frosting, different flour, different flavouring, different sugar, no nuts etc etc. My version therefore is as below: Ingredients: 200g grated carrot (two big-uns..) 175g demerara sugar 2 large eggs 150ml sunflower/veg oil 200g self raising flour (I comboed baking powder and plain) 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tbsp cinnamon 120g sultanas 50g dessicated coconut Frosting: 300g cream cheese 2 huge tbsp icing sugar 1/2 lemon worth of juice Muesli Method: 1. Sugar, eggs and oil. Mix. 2. Add flour, cinnamon and bicarb. Mix. 3. Put in sultanas, coconut and carrot. Mix (Note, I did a quick s...

I accept that no one should really put more than one, MAYBE two pictures up on any baked good. It's like looking at pictures of people's kids. Odds are, one is enough, unless of course your child is super-adorable and super fantabulous. Which of course they are! But hey I was playing with icing and I actually made the effort to crumble gingernut biscuits over the top as decoration (I know, I know, the effort...) so appreciate the fact that I am insane. Carrot cake cupcakes are a stalwart of cupcake books. They go with the peanutbutter and chocolate ones I have yet to make. But anyway, I love really good carrot cake and after the super finance woman who made amazing cupcakes blew me away with the her carrot cake one (recipe was not forthcoming - grrrrrr) I decided I needed to try my own. These ones were from Elinor Klivans Cupcakes! book. They were pretty decent. I love golden raisins/sultanas in carrot cake so it worked well. The frosting had butter and cream cheese in and I h...

Remember the Gap advert?? Well it's better than the other things mellow yellow remind me of. I'd like to say, I LiKE myself. Now I don't want this to turn into some gratuitous blog of my life's comings and goings, which, I must say, I've indulged in before in my life. What happened to the days of writing in secret diaries? Being affronted by invasion of privacy, whereas, these days we just post it all out there... Now, back to why I like myself. I could be a little slimmer, a little smarter, a little nicer... but sitting here on my day off, looking at blue sky, getting a bit narked off by my auntie who is ridiculously loud downstairs and disturbing my baking schedule, I like myself. Why? I think I've lost track a little. Well. I like baking. I like taking pictures of them and saying "Look at me, look at me" (10 things I hate about you). I am, even looking to spend some money on a camera, just so I can do that, that bit better. (Blame the food blogs, al...