reminiscing

My, oh my. It has been a while since I last posted here.

In the excitement of getting engaged, I have totally failed to keep two blogs alive.

Here goes for take two with Bake2010.

Believe it or not, I have been baking since I last posted here. Sadly there is not a whole lot of photographic evidence of this, so you'll just have to take me at my word.

This time last year, I baked carrot & cardamom cupcakes to take with me on my first ever date with the man who is to become my husband in just a few short months.

These are definitely a bit of a twist on the more traditional carrot cake recipes but it really does work having a little kick of cardamom, so, give it a go and let me know what you think!

Carrot & Cardamom Cupcakes (recipe from Cupcake Heaven by Susannah Blake)

Ingredients: (makes 12 fairy cakes or 6 large cupcakes)
100g soft brown sugar
160ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
grated zest of 1 orange
seeds from 5 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
200g self raising flour
150g carrot, grated (about 2 - 3 smallish carrots, off the top of my head)
60g pecans, chopped (optional, but good if you're the nutty type)

For the icing:
150g marscapone
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1.5 tsp lemon juice (optional)
50g icing sugar, sifted

1 :: Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4

2 :: Place the sugar in a bowl, along with the oil and eggs. Stir in the orange zest, crushed cardamom & ginger

3 :: Sift in the flour and fold in, followed by the carrot and nuts, if using

4 :: Spoon the mixture into your cake cases and bake for 20 - 25 mins until well risen and a skewer inserted comes away clean

5 :: Leave to cool on a wire rack, then beat together all of the icing ingredients and spread or pipe on, depending on your desired look


Cake count :: 600