Katherine
Jun 17, 2008, 06:00 PM
It's been quite a while since you've heard from me, particularly with a cake recipe. This isn't to say I haven't been baking cookies & cakes, just that they've not been particularly interesting recipes ;) Last week was a bit of a celebration for me though, so I dug out my favourite carrot cake recipe (much to Larry (http://www.astraware.com/company/team/index.php?name=Larry)'s annoyance because it includes banana!) So for the release of Bubble Babble (http://www.astraware.com/all/bubblebabble), my second solo project in my 2 years working for Astraware, I baked this lovely, moist, nutty carrot cake :)
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/97/bubblebabblecake.jpg
Cake
175g light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
175ml sunflower oil
225g coarsely grated carrots
3 ripe bananas, mashed
100g chopped walnuts
280g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 9inch cake tin.
Throw all the ingredients into a big bowl and beat the mixture until smooth (well, as smooth as it can be with bits of carrot and walnut! ;))
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour or until well risen, golden brown, and a skewer or sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out, remove the lining paper, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frosting
200g cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
115g icing sugar
To make the frosting beat all the ingredients together until smooth :)
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/97/bbcakepainting.jpg
At this point, I stole an artist to help decorate my cake. With lots of food colouring, some marzipan, and a pair of chopsticks we created the lovely watery scene. Never before have I seen anyone "paint" with cream cheese icing using a chop stick! Although it did work surprisingly well :)
If you don't have an artist to hand, then just cover the cake with the icing, and perhaps dot a few pieces of walnut on the top, before slicing into generous pieces and trying to fend off the swarm of hungry people! :) Or perhaps everyone in my office is just underfed? ;)
Bubble Babble (http://www.astraware.com/all/bubblebabble) was a really fun project to work on. It all started with an idea from Steve (http://www.astraware.com/company/team/index.php?name=Stephen) for the basic gameplay and slowly evolved through prototypes and long design meetings into the game that's now available to buy :) I really love word games so it was great to work on a game which I keep finding myself playing, even now I'm not on a bug hunt! :) If you enjoy word games then I highly recommend you give it a try (http://www.astraware.com/all/bubblebabble), although I might be a little biased ;)
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/97/bubblebabblecake.jpg
Cake
175g light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
175ml sunflower oil
225g coarsely grated carrots
3 ripe bananas, mashed
100g chopped walnuts
280g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 9inch cake tin.
Throw all the ingredients into a big bowl and beat the mixture until smooth (well, as smooth as it can be with bits of carrot and walnut! ;))
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour or until well risen, golden brown, and a skewer or sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out, remove the lining paper, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frosting
200g cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
115g icing sugar
To make the frosting beat all the ingredients together until smooth :)
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/97/bbcakepainting.jpg
At this point, I stole an artist to help decorate my cake. With lots of food colouring, some marzipan, and a pair of chopsticks we created the lovely watery scene. Never before have I seen anyone "paint" with cream cheese icing using a chop stick! Although it did work surprisingly well :)
If you don't have an artist to hand, then just cover the cake with the icing, and perhaps dot a few pieces of walnut on the top, before slicing into generous pieces and trying to fend off the swarm of hungry people! :) Or perhaps everyone in my office is just underfed? ;)
Bubble Babble (http://www.astraware.com/all/bubblebabble) was a really fun project to work on. It all started with an idea from Steve (http://www.astraware.com/company/team/index.php?name=Stephen) for the basic gameplay and slowly evolved through prototypes and long design meetings into the game that's now available to buy :) I really love word games so it was great to work on a game which I keep finding myself playing, even now I'm not on a bug hunt! :) If you enjoy word games then I highly recommend you give it a try (http://www.astraware.com/all/bubblebabble), although I might be a little biased ;)