IS CARROT CAKE ONE OF MY 5 A DAY?

Carrots

Is carrot cake one of my 5 a day? I was asked this week.

Good question!!

I have gone through phases of using vegetables in cakes and pies as a sure way to get the 5 a day eaten. With varying success...so is it?

We are repeatedly told that Five Fruit and Veg a day can reduce the risk of some cancers and are vital to a healthy lifestyle.

There are always articles and research that aim to disprove this.  At the same time we hear that our European cousins eat on average 7 portions a day.

 So what should we believe?

Carrots

Confused? Lots of people are, because get this -despite the huge Ad campaigns of recent years recommending we eat our 5 a day, research shows that here in the UK we barely manage to average 3 day. 

Ooops.. not good... I know sometimes we are guilty of not getting 5 a day, despite my careful planning.

So when I baked a carrot cake this week, which is always popular, someone in the family, who will remain nameless, happily tucked into seconds before asking if that counted as two of their 5 a day.

They would quite happily have had 5 portions of cake had I said yes!!

I explained that as the recipe only has 8 oz of carrots in total I didn’t think you could count it as a whole portion.

This was met with disappointment!

After much deliberation and checking of the recipe it was decided that it must count for a little bit of a portion! How much I’m really not sure!!

So I thought I would post the recipe for you.

Carrot Cake

I first tried it when I was a waitress in a coffee shop in Old Portsmouth. It was run by two lovely ladies, Dorothy and Joan, who baked all the cakes themselves. They called it Passion Cake and certain male clients used to think they were really clever when asking us waitresses for “passion cake” using a variety of tones and emphasis!! Need I say more?

It's just called carrot cake here as I have no idea why or how it got the other name!

Enjoy...

CARROT CAKE

Preparation time 5 minutes plus grating time

Cooking time 25minutes at 180 degrees

Cooling time half an hour

You need 2 equal sized cake tins about 7 inches across

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz Castor Sugar

8 oz Carrot finely grated

8oz plain flour

6oz oil- sunflower

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

2 eggs

3 oz chopped walnuts

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Beat the eggs and the sugar together.

2.     Add the carrot, walnuts and oil and mix thoroughly

3.     Sieve the flour and stir into the mixture, then add the spices and raising agents.

4.     Divide the mixture into 2 tins

5.     Cook for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean

This is delicious with lemon icing but if you are feeling more indulgent try it with a cream cheese topping.

INDULGENT TOPPING FOR CARROT CAKE

INGREDIENTS

1 oz butter

2oz icing sugar

4oz quark or other low fat cream cheese

3oz soured cream

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Cream the butter and icing sugar together

2.     Add the quark or soft cream cheese and combine, then beat in the soured cream.

3.     Beat well then use half to sandwich the cakes together and the rest to decorate the top.  

I have made this as an alternative to Easter Simnel cake as it looks cute decorated with eggs and fluffy chicks!!

I know...How kitch!

I just want to say a big THANK YOU for reading and for your comments it is great hearing from you.

Carrot cake with indulgent cream cheese topping.