19 October 2013

Melt in Your Mouth Heaven and a Thank You


Thank you, everyone, for your get well wishes and kind thoughts, prayers and lovely emails. You have no idea how they've cheered me up. My illness isn't a secret, it was just sudden, unexpected, took us all totally by surprise, caught us unawares - you get the idea.

Last Sunday I was fine, pottering around in the garden in between rain showers and catching glimpses of the car racing on TV. About 4am Monday morning I wasn't so fine, by 7.30am it was decided I needed a doctor and by 8am I was in hospital. Lots of poking, prodding, pricking, x-raying and scanning was done to get a diagnosis and it was a very long, painful day. Upshot is I will get well. It will take time. I am home now. I will need to make some lifestyle changes for six weeks or so. And I have to swallow a couple of tablets a day for a few weeks. Oh, and I really, really, REALLY appreciate just how comfortable and cosy our bed is and how nice it is to sleep in a quiet house.

While I've been out of action Hannah has done an amazing job of keeping things running, both on the website and at home. And all this while she's been concentrating on her last week of school before the end-of-Year-12 craziness begins.

One of the things she does very well is bake. From a little girl she's loved baking and experimenting with ingredients to create new treats for us. All of them have been memorable, mostly for good reason, with the occasional bad memory in there. She's a good sport about it and takes the ribbing from her brothers with a stern "keep it up and I won't make any more cup cakes" as she wags her finger at them.

This week she's been baking a lot, I think as a stress release. It's been late night baking, which seems to be when she gets her inspiration.

And one of her inspirations was to use the limp carrots in the fridge and sad looking sultanas in the pantry to make carrot cake. It was delicious, topped with a luscious, thick layer of coconut cream cheese icing. It is absolutely the best icing for carrot cake, you just have to try it.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
¾ cup cooking oil
1-1/3 cup plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups grated raw carrot
½ cup roughly chopped walnuts
½ cup sultanas
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
Grease an 20cm square tin. Heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Beat eggs and sugar until frothy. Add oil, stir in sifted dry ingredients and lastly fold in carrots, nuts and vanilla. Bake for 1 hour. When cool ice as below. (Cake can be frozen before icing it).

Coconut Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:
250g cream cheese (not light)
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp coconut oil, warmed to a liquid
1 tbsp coconut milk (or cow's milk if you don't have coconut milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
shredded coconut for sprinkling if you want to

Method:

Take the cream cheese from the fridge about 30 minutes before you are going to use it to bring it to room temperature. Place in a bow and beat until soft. Gradually add the icing sugar, coconut oil, coconut milk and vanilla. Beat at high speed until the mixture is glossy and completely smooth. Beat in the grated orange rind. Spread the icing over your cake using a knife dipped in hot water every so often for a smooth result. Sprinkle liberally with shredded coconut if you want to.


1 comment:

  1. Hi Cath, I am sorry to hear you are unwell. It is so frightening to be taken in to hospital so suddenly like that, and I am so glad that your illness is something that you will recover from. I wish you a speedy and comfortable recuperation, and I am sure your family will take wonderful care of you. Hannah is certainly a treasure to you all. Thank you for the carrot cake recipe too, it sounds absolutely delicious and will be on the menu here very soon! Take care and best wishes to you and you family x

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