I am a lover of tea but again serious critic of what goes down my throat. Why? Foodies understand this struggle. It is not that easy to explain. It is just how some of us are wired. So, I do plain water at 10am while my colleagues do tea and herbal tea at 4pm instead. Just… #MyPreference.

The strangest thing is I have been craving crunchy or sweet food at 4pm on the dot for the last 2 weeks and have been secretly giving in. So yesterday, I decided, why should I be eating processed versions of what my kitchen can produce without the stabilizers and sodium nitrate preservatives.

Hence, the carrot cake with 100% natural ingredients i.e. Vegetable oil, carrots, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, flour and sugar.

Yes, the craving knocked at my office door at the expected time and the carrot cake answered.

#FoodieStruggles #FoodieLife

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs ½ tsp vanilla essence or extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

11/2 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups grated carrot

 

Combine sugar and vegetable oil in a mixing bowl and add in one egg at time, folding it in well.

Add vanilla.

In another bowl, sieve together the dry ingredients i.e. flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add the oil and sugar mixture to the dry ingredients and gently fold in together until it is well mixed.

Add in the grated carrot & mix well.

Pour into a greased pan and bake at 175C for approximately 35 minutes or when a toothpick comes out clean. Practically, my cake took an hour to cook. My oven may be old or faulty but that is just my experience with this part of the recipe.

 Let it cool before removing from the pan because it is delicate i.e. very soft and moist even after it has cooled down. You would not want a large chunk of your cake remaining in your baking pan because of the steam generated while the cake is still hot.

 

How to ice…the original recipe indicated cream cheese icing which is just…ahem…..cream cheese is expensive and not a guarantee that it will be a hit with my toddlers so I flew past that section and I will quote my dear son, like a Subaro (as my son pronounces it)…..

Either way, the original recipe used to be here but the page is unresponsive.

The cake is slightly over 1kg when it has cooled down. This rich, soft, moist and flavorful cake is just the one.

Maybe i should baptize it a new name……(drum rolls)….Delilah cake. A real temptation it is. In fact, I am tempted to head back to the kitchen right now and make another one.

The other challenge of the #FoodieLife is that the same recipe does not give you the same results the second time round i.e. the cake will still be superb but something will just be different.

Anyone who understands this will surely relate to my #FoodieStruggles.