Carrot Cake

   I'm starting to count down the days.

   15...

   12...

   10...

   8...

   8 days.

   8 days until the new year begins.

   8 days left before the new school year starts.

   In a way, I'm excited. I can't wait to see the children and jump around and go mad with them. If only school was just about teaching and being with children. If only.

   Now, teachers have to handle so much more than classrooms and students. Lots and lots of paperwork. Document this and that. Go for meetings here and there. Sometimes I feel like I'm more of an odd-job man really, because I can't think of anything that a teacher doesn't do at school. Let's play a quiz shall we? Name the occupations the tasks listed below actually belong to.

   Teach.

   Prepare documents.

   Photocopy documents.

   Mail documents.

   Treat children's wounds.

   Dress up like a clown and clown around in class.

   Carry and move things here and there.

   Organise sport events. Train students for sport events.

   Paint and decorate the rooms.

   Paint the stairs, even.

   Break up a fight between children.

   Break up a fight between other teachers.

   Okay. I was joking. Or maybe not.

   The good thing is, I have these bright faces to look forward to:
   

I know, right. Bigger than me, boys and girls these days.

   Next year, I want to be a happier, more productive, fun and better teacher than ever.

   For that, I shall need better nutrition. Healthy food.

   Carrot cake should count as healthy food, right?

   If you're reading this Shaheen, you'd be proud of me... right??? I'm really sad about the loss of Moggy. I love cats.

Lots and lots of carrots.

Already cut through it before remembering to take a photo. Haha.

MAMA DOROSCH'S CARROT CAKE
Source: Bisous A Toi 
Click on the link for original recipe and cup measurements

Ingredients

CAKE
300g castor sugar
1 1/2 cups oil
4 eggs
260g flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups grated carrots, packed
3/4 cup walnuts (optional)

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
8oz cream cheese - well softened
113g butter, well softened
100g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

CAKE

Pre-heat the oven to 360ºF with a rack in the middle position. Grease and line three 7-inch baking tins.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

In a second, medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the sugar mix and mix until well incorporated.

Fold in the carrots and walnuts.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

FROSTING

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy.Gradually beat in the icing sugar until well blended. Frost and decorate as you like. 

This cake turned me into a veggie eater. So proud of myself! *pats self on the back

   This cake is soooooo good. I like to put the cake in the refrigerator and take it out a few minutes before eating. So far I haven't tried a new carrot cake recipe without falling in love with it. 

Of Apple Pies & Carrot Cakes

   This was the day I made 5 apple pies and 3 carrot cakes. All in one day. And I had to catch a bus to KL after that too.

   First, let's look at the apple pies. I love making pie pastry, though they never turn out the same each time,. Unpredictable, these people.

   First, I made this for mum's cousin. It's quite a scare isn't it? I meant to just cut out holes using an apple-shaped biscuit cutter, but it turned out to look like this:

   Should cheer anybody up, that! 

   Next, I made this for my driving instructor, who unfortunately forgot to come and take it, so we gave it away to somebody else. I'll make her something else next time. It was quite the prettiest pie I made that day, I think, with the apple cutouts all around the edge: 

   I meant to leave this for the others to eat at home, but they gave it away to Little Brother's teachers, along with the second pie. Little Brother got 9As for  PMR, so it was sort of thank-you gift. Congratulations Little Brother, you nailed it!

  I also brought 2 with me to KL, one for Big Sister and her housemates, and another for my friend Wawa, for her birthday which was on 15th December. Latecomers, we both are!

   I only managed to take a photo of one carrot cake, which Mum gave away to her friend. I rather like this baking and giving away thing, it makes me happy (for getting the chance to bake something) and the people getting the baked stuff happy too!

   This is a recipe that I stick to whenever I want a carrot cake because it uses only 5 easy to remember ingredients. The only things that take time is grating the carrots and baking it. I sometimes reduce the amount of sugar, but it's okay to use the actual amount, it's not too sweet.

As usual, this is what I put into my cake, you can visit the link for the original recipe. Jules uses almond flour in her recipe, which she says makes the cake super moist but if you substitute it for all-purpose flour or self-raising flour like it did, it's still pretty good.

I love Stonesoup. Jules recipes are so simple, and so far the ones I've tried have turned out really nicely.

CARROT CAKE

Source: Stonesoup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used corn oil)

250g brown sugar

3 large eggs

250g self-raising flour

250g grated carrots

1. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. Line a baking tin with baking paper and grease the bottom and sides with a little oil.

3. Measure the oil into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and whisk together until well-combined.

4. Add the eggs, one by one, until well-combined.

5. Sift in the self-raising flour. Fold in until well-incorporated. 

6. Thoroughly fold in grated carrots.

7. Bake in pre-heated oven for about one hour. If the top of the cake browns too quickly,  cover it with a piece of aluminium foil until the cake is cooked (do the skewer/toothpick test).

8. Cover with yoghurt cream cheese topping, which is really easy to make:

Yoghurt Cream Cheese Topping

I'm afraid I forgot to measure the amounts. Just whisk together soft, room  temperature cream cheese, castor sugar and yoghurt. If you want the topping to be stiffer, use more cream cheese. if you want it to drizzle over the sides, use more yoghurt. Add sugar to taste. 

If you like, you can bake the cake in a large, square pan. When its baked, cut the cake into little squares, and pour the topping on top, like a sauce:

This is also useful if you have to cut of the top of the cake to level it. Use the scraps for this, it makes a lovely dessert.