39 to go
No. 11 Carrot cake.
Blimey, this was easier than I thought. I have no idea why I have been putting it off. Once the grated carrots were in the mixture I was excited to do this for the first time. Even though I have eaten carrot cake many a time the thought of putting actual carrots in a cake was a strange thing to do. I obviously don't get out enough! Anyway, with the folding done my mission was accomplished, the rest was just down to the bake. To my relief the frosting was pretty straight forward too!
I have built up a nice little collection of baking accessories over the years which are coming in quite handy now. This includes a turntable which one can use to make it a lot easier to frost or ice your cake. I bought it a couple of years ago when I baked Davids Grandmothers cake for her 90th. It's fab and is very much in use now.
Back to my bake. As I was holding the palate knife in one hand whilst turning my nearly finished frosted cake with the other, to the untrained eye it could have seemed like I knew what I was doing.
With the cake frosted and the photograph out of the way, I was ready to hand it over to the family for tasting. A few slices where tested and a thumbs up from those involved, so all was good! The next morning I took the bull by the horns and brought the rest to work.
Apologies to all that are still reading this post but I have to share my little moment. As I carefully carried the cake from the car park to the office, a lady who was walking towards me, probably also heading to her place of work gave me a really big smile. She asked if I had picked the cake up from Eric's (Cake boy).
She had to order a cake that day to be collected on Friday morning, some occasion in her office I guess. I told her it was home made and ready to bring to my work to share around. Apparently this home made effect was just what she was looking for! As you can imagine, I was chuffed to pieces and took it as a big compliment.
To give you a brief picture, my place of work is in Battersea reach and along with many other people our office is based there. It's quite a nice place for a walk along the riverside especially in the sunshine but it's fairly quiet. This can be nice, especially as sometimes getting to be away from the madness of the city centre can be a blessing. Also as an added bonus it does however happen to be the place where Éric Lanlard has his cookery school. Nowadays it also doubles up very chic riverside cafe.
Whether you just pop in for a nice coffee and yummy cake or indulge in a breakfast or afternoon tea, if you’re out that way it's definitely worth a visit. It's our only place to buy special cakes that are yummy and beautiful looking. However, all good things come at a cost and I need my pennies to make and sell my own cakes for my charity, so these days I only eat there when I feel like a treat. Of course it is really nice to have these sort of places on your work door step for that particular time.
Anyway, for those that were in the office that Monday morning and where ready to try my cake, I enjoyed it and I had lots of positive feedback. Some liked more frosting than others but that's just a personal preference I guess. I was a little frugal with the frosting in the middle as didn't want it to all spill out, but I will definitely be making this again!
Onwards to dessert number twelve!