Vegetables are a must in a diet, I suggest Carrot Cake!

The popularity of carrot cake was thankfully revived in the UK due to the rationing of imported goods by the government during the Second World War, and boy am I happy that it was, I love carrot cakes! Obviously, I'm not the only person who feels this way. Carrot cake is immensely popular worldwide and according to a survey done by Radio Times two years ago it was the most popular cake in the United Kingdom.

Carrot cake recipes are different from baker to baker some might add raisins, pineapple, or coconuts to the batter in order to give it a sweeter taste. Also, many bakers, including Family cakes, will add nuts to the mixture. Carrot cakes are simple make and like a said there are many different recipes. Here is just one that we like to use  

Ingredients:

• 175g light muscovado sugar  
• 175ml cooking oil
•  3 large eggs , lightly beaten
• 140g grated carrots (about 3 medium
• 100g raisins
• 175g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
•  ½ tsp grated nutmeg

Cream cheese icing:

• 115g cream cheese
• 115g  butter
• 275g icing sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

First we need to lightly mix the sugar, eggs and oil in a large bowl. Once these are mixed together add the carrots and raisins (raisins are optional) and continue to mix. When the sugar, eggs, and raisins are mixed evenly, add and mix the flower bicarbonate of soda and spices into the batter for about three min. Pour the batter 18cm square cake pan and cook in the oven for 40 minutes at a temperature of 180 C.  After the cake is cooking mix the ingredients for the cream cheese icing together then spread it evenly on the cake. Aswell as the frosting,  we also like to sprinkle some cruched busicuts on top of the cake. Once both these are done then the cake is ready for your enjoyment.  

A Birthday Story

All the birthday cakes that have been prepared over the last week got me thinking about the origins of the birthday cakes. After a bit of research I found that scholars can’t agree on who the first civilization to bake birthday cakes. Some believe that the Ancient Romans and Greeks were the first to practice this tradition when they would celebrate special birthdays or give them as gifts to the gods. Unlike today’s cakes, the Ancient Greeks' cakes did not have sugar as a sweetener, but instead used honey and nuts. Other scholars believed that the origins of birthday cakes originated with the Germans in the middle ages. Despite the mysterious past the making of the traditional birthday cake has evolved. The elaborate ones that we are more familiar with emerged in the 17^th century, and are continuing to evolve today! Chefs are taking the birthday cake one step further by adding sculptures or pictures of their customers’ favorite superheroes, cartoon characters, or even the customer’s face photo shopped into different bodies or objects.

Keep the odd requests coming! I’m interested to what what the kitchen can make next!! 

Going Behind the Scenes

After my first week and a half here at Family Cakes I realized that baking cakes isn’t as easy as the food network says, but a tedious process. This is especially true today when Ana began the painstaking long process of baking 20 Decotube and Mixed Berry cakes for an order! First Ana had to bake 60, 4 inch sponge cakes which by itself takes a great deal of time. Once the sponge cakes were finished baking Ana immediately cut out the shape of each cake placed them in the fridge to set.

After the sponge cakes set, Ana then begin to make the 20 Decotube and Mixed Berry cakes. She first started by stacking 3 sponge cakes on top of each other with a layer cream between each cake. Butter cream was then spread around the three sponge cakes in order to stick chocolate pencils around the outside of the cake. Ana continued this process until all the 20 Decotube and Mixed Berry cakes are made. Surely I thought she was done at this point!!...... but I was wrong. The cakes still needed to be decorated with fresh fruit and the 4 inch plaques that are personalized for the customer.

In the future before you are about to dive into a delicious cake, take a moment to remember the hard work that someone put into baking your cake!!