Hello friends. These few past days were sunny and very cold, with temperatures below 0C. I love winter days like that, especially since most of this winter was cold, grey and soggy. Frosty air and pink sunrises are a refreshing change.
I've been lost in thoughts lately, thinking about my life and choices I made that led me to this slow living lifestyle. I wanted to share a few things and ideas I gathered through years - ideas which led me to the choices I made today.
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Carrot Cake recipe (non traditional)
I have a love-hate relationship with carrot cake. To be honest, I absolutely dislike cream cheese frosting, and been searching for a recipe which doesn't use cream cheese. I haven't found one, so had to make my own. This is how this carrot cake came about. :)
Carrot cake sponge:
250g plain flour
2tsp baking soda + 0.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
100ml oil (any oil would do, but I used olive)
3 tbsp sour cream (or high fat % yoghurt)
4 eggs
150g brown sugar (you can increase the amount if you wish, but I don't like overly sweet cakes)
6 medium carrots
1 tangerine (zest and juice - you can use a small orange, but tangerine is milder)
100g lightly toasted walnuts
100g cranberries (I'm not a fan of raisins, so used cranberries instead)
Sift through your flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices. Add salt and mix through.
In a separate bowl whisk eggs with sugar, then add oil and sour cream and whisk again. Sour cream really adds a ton of moisture to the sponge without making it oily, so please don't skip this step. If you really can't find sour cream, then double the amount of oil or use high fat % yoghurt.
Pour wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Then add grated carrots, chopped walnuts, cranberries, tangerine zest and juice.
Preheat the oven to 180C/ 355F. Pour half of the batter into a lined and greased cake tin. Mine is about 7inch/19cm in diameter, but you can also use 6 inch pan for a taller cake or 8 inch pan for a flatter cake. Bake for 25 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely. Repeat the same process with the other half of your batter.
Cream frosting:
225g sour cream (I used 20% fat)
100g powdered sugar
100ml double cream
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Whisk together all the ingredients until it forms soft peaks. Set aside to chill in the fridge until your sponge is cool enough to assemble.
This frosting doesn't taste much like sour cream at all - it's a little bit tangy and fruity thanks to lemon, and has a very mild and silky texture due to double cream. Don't be afraid to try it - it's somewhat similar to cream cheese frosting, but doesn't have that same heavy texture.
Cake assembly:
I like to cut my cake sponge into 2 to make thinner layers. I find that they absorb moisture from the cream much better that way. You don't need to cut it and can make a 2 layered cake instead. If you want to cut the sponge in half, you can insert toothpicks around the side where you intend to cut it to help you create an even layer.
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Find me on Instagram:
dariashew
Filmed on: Panasonic GH5
Edited with: Premiere Pro CC
Music: Epidemic Sound
Dress: Son De Flor (15% off) tinyurl.com/sondeflordresses
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#slowliving #cottagecore #findyourpurpose
18 янв 2023
