Ingredients

500g of carrots, peeled and grated
170g of plain flour
2 teaspoon of  baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
4 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g of brown sugar
55g of sugar
300ml of sunflower oil
120g of coarsely chopped walnuts
100g of raisins

Method

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl then set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs until well blended. Add the vanilla essence, sugar and oil; beat to incorporate.

3. Fold in the dry ingredients in 3 batches.

4. Add the carrots, walnuts and raisins. Fold in.

5. Bake for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius in a 9-inch square baking tray.

TIPS: Hand-squeeze the water out from the carrots because too much water will make the cake very wet and soggy in the middle.

What’s On My Mind…

I have always been an “asian carrot cake” kind of guy and never ever tried this sort of carrot cake from any store before. I decided to try this out from a recipe book I had long ago and my mum was the one who actually fell in love with this cake.

She liked the fact that it used oil instead of butter and she appreciated the various textures this cake had; from the softness of the cake itself to the crunchiness of the walnuts.

Try this out and I promise you, it will be a recipe you will use for every special occasion.

Ingredients

300g of cake flour
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of salt
300g of sugar
1 and a 1/2 cup of sunflower oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of red colouring (optional)
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 cup of buttermilk
1 and a 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
2 teaspoons of vinegar

Method

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and salt and set it aside.

2. With a mixer, mix the sugar and oil till it is blended. Then, add the eggs one at a time and blend till you get a pale-yellow paste. Once done, mix in the vanilla essence and colouring.

3. Reduce the speed of the mixer and add the flour mixture in 3 batches, making sure that you alternate with 2 batches of buttermilk. So basically, you are adding 1 batch of the flour mixture, and blending it followed by 1 batch of buttermilk and blending it again. Carry on in this pattern till the flour and buttermilk mixture is well incorporated.

4. Mix the bicarbonate soda and vinegar in a separate bowl; it will bubble. Add it to the batter and blend it for only 10 seconds.

5. Fill half your cupcake cups with the batter and bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 25mins. When you pierce the middle of the cupcake all the way through, it should come out clean.

TIPS: You do not need to purchase buttermilk; you can simply add 1 tablespoon of vinegar into 1 cup of milk, set it aside for 5 minutes and your buttermilk is ready.

What’s On My Mind…

Anything that is “red and velvety” can be sure to win the hearts of many. There is no limit to the types of red velvet flavoured items you see out in the market but I still think the cakes are the best.

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart and I really love it because it gives you a very moist, soft and flavourful cake. I feel that the use of oil instead of butter gives it a much better texture. You can bake this in cups or as a whole cake too. Either way, you get an awesome cake which is slightly oily to the touch, but totally decadent.