LET THEM EAT CAKE!

“No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.” - George Bernard Shaw

Despite this being a short week due to the holiday on Monday and Tuesday, this evening I feel exhausted. I guess it was because of all the work that I had to catch up on, which had banked up while I was away. Nevertheless, it feels good to be home tonight with the weekend to recover. I have nothing on my plate in regards to my book, having returned all the proofs to the publisher. I am now awaiting the arrival of the textbook, which should be published before Christmas. I have received the first copy of the Dictionary and it looks wonderful. It is such a buzz to finally hold in one’s hands the product of such a lot of long hard work and see the fruit of one’s labours.

Seeing how a celebration is in order tonight, how about a cake? This is a wonderful cake for autumn and winter as it is rich and spicy and fruity and a delight to eat, as well as being fairly easy to make and fairly robust in terms of a success rate.

APPLE AND CARROT FRUIT CAKE

Ingredients - cake
1 large cup finely diced dried fruit (eg: apricots, dates, cherries, sultanas, mixed crystallised peel)
1 crisp apple, grated
1 medium sized carrot, finely grated
1 large cup caster sugar
100 g butter
1/4 teaspoonful mixed spice (more or less to taste)
1/4 teaspoonful cinnamon (ditto)
1/4 teaspoonful mace (ditto)
1/4 teaspoonful ginger powder (ditto)
A little vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 large cup milk
1 teaspoonful baking soda (dissolved in milk)
2 large cups of self-raising flour

Ingredients - icing
1 and 1/2 large cups of icing sugar
Juice of a lime
1-2 drops of orange essence
Orange food colouring (optional)

Method
Prepare the dried fruit and mix with the grated apple and carrot, laying aside until needed.  Beat the sugar with the softened butter in a mixer bowl until smooth and add the spices and vanilla essence. Lightly beat the eggs and add slowly and alternately with the milk, flour and fruit mixture, beating the cake mixture all the time until the batter is of a smooth consistency. Add some more milk if the mixture is too stiff. Put into a greased bundt cake tin ensuring there is enough room for rising. Bake in a pre-warmed oven at 150-160˚C for about 50-60 minutes, or until baked through (test with a skewer).
While the cake is baking prepare the icing. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until smooth and glossy. Add more or less sugar/juice until a fairly stiff mixture is achieved. When the cake is baked, turn out onto a serving plate and spoon the icing over the top so that it melts all over the cake.


Have a good weekend!