Beginner Baking 3

Undaunted by the lemon cake's collapse and the crumbly crunchie, I persisted with my baking adventures and tried out a "foolproof" carrot cake recipe for brunch with friends. I didn't like carrot cake before moving to NZ - bad childhood memories of soggy cakes made by people other than my mother - but have taste-tested some excellent examples here and wanted to make my own.

I found the recipe in a magazine and it doesn't seem to be available online. And it wasn't foolproof anyway as it took almost twice as long to cook as the recipe claimed and the topping quantities seemed wrong.

So click here for an alternative recipe, courtesy of a much better magazine, NZ Life and Leisure. The only significant difference in this recipe seems to be the addition of ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice which strikes me as an excellent idea. I went off piste with my topping too, decorating it with pumpkin seeds and dried apricot.


It's gardening club again on Sunday so I'll be trying out another recipe very soon - watch this space...