Monday, December 1, 2014

December, Carrot Cake, Rent Cheques.

12 YearsWell here we are, the last month of the year. All of you Americans having been stuffing yourselves stupid for the Thanksgiving holiday whilst here in Canada we have been bombarded by ads for Black Friday sales and now Cyber Monday ones. How can a sale denominated by a day last all week? I did take advantage at Amazon.ca though, bought 12 Years a Slave for $7. Not a bad price.

We indulged slightly on Saturday, eating a slice of my much touted carrot cake. Carrot CakeMaybe I should have tried it in the restaurant first (if it was available) we were very disappointed. The cake part was excellent but I DO NOT buy a carrot cake for the cake. The frosting was very mediocre. Considering how good their mincemeat tarts are, I am very surprised. It looked so good too. I am toying with the idea of making some more frosting to put on it. Theirs was very bland and very uninteresting.

Quicken ChequesOne thing I got round to doing was printing our 12 rent cheques. We have an old fashioned realtor company who don’t do business by direct deposit etc. so we have to write cheques. I have always done 12 at a time but got fed up with writing them by hand so a few years ago I ordered cheques for my programme (Quicken) which makes it a lot easier. I have had a bit of trouble over the years getting them to print quite right, but this year I was more successful. Considering I only do it once a year, I don’t get much practice. It’s not as easy as one might think. All my Christmas cards have been mailed with the exception of those for Canada so I am feeling pretty well organised right now.

Particularly for my Mexican dragon friend, who has apparently never heard of a carrot cake, I thought I would publish a recipe today. Maybe this is the frosting I will use. This is voted one of the best recipes ever apparently.
 

Canada's Best Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing


Our most popular recipe ever! This moist carrot cake is welcome at birthdays, weddings, reunions and all special occasions.
Canada's Best Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
By The Canadian Living Test Kitchen
Portion size18
 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups 2cups(500 mL) (500 mL) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp 2tsp(10 mL) (10 mL) baking powder
  • 2 tsp 2tsp(10 mL) (10 mL) cinnamon
  • 1 tsp 1tsp(5 mL) (5 mL) baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp 3/4tsp(4 mL) (4 mL) salt
  • 1/2 tsp 1/2tsp(2 mL) (2 mL) nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup 3/4cup(175 mL) (175 mL) granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup 3/4cup(175 mL) (175 mL) packed brown sugar
  • 3 3eggeggs
  • 3/4 cup 3/4cup(175 mL) (175 mL) vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp 1tsp(5 mL) (5 mL) vanilla
  • 2 cups 2cups(500 mL) (500 mL) grated carrot
  • 1 cup 1cup(250 mL) (250 mL) drained crushed canned pineapple
  • 1/2 cup 1/2cup(125 mL) (125 mL) chopped pecans
Icing:
  • 1 8 oz (250g) package 18 oz (250g) package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup 1/4cup(60 mL) (60 mL) butter, softened
  • 1/2 tsp 1/2tsp(2 mL) (2 mL) vanilla
  • 1 cup 1cup(250 mL) (250 mL) icing sugar
 

Preparation

Grease and flour 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal cake pan; set aside.
In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In separate bowl, beat together granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth; pour over flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Stir in carrots, pineapple and pecans. Spread in prepared pan.
Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven for 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack. (Make-ahead: Cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days. Or ovenwrap with heavy duty foil and freeze for up to 2 weeks; let thaw before continuing.)
Icing: In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth. Spread over top of cake. (Make-ahead: Cover loosely and refrigerate for up to I day.)

Have a great day. As it’s actually still Sunday whilst writing, I am off to have my Sunday fizz.
Jo










18 comments:

  1. $7 for the movie - excellent! I don't do many cheques either. I recently started using a light olive oil in place of veg oil in cakes - very moist. I too buy the carrot cake for the icing - though I might not have admitted to it before now! (smile). I also do a carrot cake roll, much like the pumpkin roll.
    I envy you having the cards done - I'm am moving like a herd of turtles.

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    1. I thought so too, it will arrive tomorrow as well, can't beat it. Doesn't using olive oil alter the taste? I don't make cakes any more (unless it's a dessert for company). Ah, got you to confess eh?

      I always do my own cards anyway and as I have a stack to go overseas I am early. Mind you, the cost of a stamp overseas has gone up a lot and I am not sure I am going to bother in future years.

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  2. In retrospect I should've waited till today to make my amazon order since I had a $200 gift certificate from all the spare coins I had (here in the USA we have a machine called Coinstar and if you opt for a store gift card, you get the full amt of the coins you are depositing, otherwise Coinstar takes a percentage).

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    1. That's interesting JoJo, we have Coinstar but don't think we get an option and boy do they take a percentage. I must check it out.

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  3. You have made me hungry and craving for carrot cake. I do appreciate the recipe. I actually love carrot cakes, specially the icing. I agree with you that if the icing sucks, the carrot cake loses its charm. I'll try the recipe soon, dwarves will be delighted!!! :) Big Dragon Hugs!

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    1. Don't forget to send some to your abuela dragon. Abrazos.

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  4. Ugh, is there anything worse than a good cake with bad frosting? It goes both ways: just as I can't do a frosting that's bland and uninteresting, I also can't stand when a frosting is way too thick/sweet.

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    1. Yes, there needs to be a happy medium I guess.

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  5. Your carrot cake sounds awesome!
    I want to see that film and yet I don't. Heard it is really difficult to watch.

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    1. Thanks.

      I have heard that too, but a friend saw it recently and just said it was sad.

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  6. Sorry to read that the carrot cake and frosting wasn't good but then who knows who made it, really. Cake is a funny thing.

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    1. I am quite sure they made it at the restaurant. All their stuff is home made. However, the frosting was not good as I said.

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    2. When I worked as a prep cook, some things we made and some bits (like the frosting on the B-day cakes), were buy-ins.

      Carrot cake frosting is super easy to make. Not something that should be mucked up, if it's truly all homemade, or if they're using good ingredients to make it.

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    3. I could be wrong of course, but this looks home made, just not a particularly good recipe.

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    4. Could be homemade but like you said, just a bad recipe. And by the sounds of it, crappy ingredients as well.

      On another note, we used to have to make our own double cream frosting for for one of the cakes, at work. But the double cream itself, was horrible stuff. Good gosh. Terrible stuff.

      Well, at least you like the mince pies, so that's a great thing. We sometimes eat at this one place where the steak and in-house salad dressing is wonderful. But the fish & chips. Horrible.

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    5. Must have been interesting work. I think Double Cream in North America is horrible stuff anyway, I am assured (recently) that it's fine if you live on a farm.

      Odd how that can happen, some food good and some bad in the same place.

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    6. We have access to a wonderful organic double cream and oh my gosh, so clean tasting. Makes a wonderful whip, as well.

      The stuff at work was cheap, cheap, cheap. Plastic, even. It was funny because the Swedish meatballs were buy-ins as well, but those were pretty darn good.

      I've never made a Swedish meatball at home though, so maybe once I did, the work ones wouldn't taste as good.

      Got some honey wholemeal bread on the first rise in the kitchen as I type this. Working on a new recipe. Added 30ml organic honey. We'll see how it goes.

      Toes and eyeballs, crossed.

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    7. Now you've made me feel green with envy Real cream.

      Not that keen on meatballs of any kind. I have made them for fondues though.

      Hope your bread turns out OK.

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