Carrot Cake,... And one very busy weekend

So for those who don't know I'm the youngest of four girls, (no, no brothers, yes my poor father always out numbered... ) which means there is nearly always a birthday or some form of family event going on, this weekend it was Sister Number 2 Birthday Party, which in my little universe means I got to make a birthday cake. Not sure when I took over from Mum as the birthday cake maker but it's a job I love and also means I don't have to get presents for the insanely hard to buy for sisters.

Sister 2, requested Carrot Cake at Sister 3's birthday last month so I jumped on pinterest (GOD how I love Pinterest) and looked up all the ways to decorate a carrot cake and found this amazing idea http://pinterest.com/pin/130393351682312016/ (the pin links to the orginal blog, which is really good, I recommend reading it) so once I had my inspiration, I had to find a recipe, there is one on the blog but for some reason I didn't use it ( I used an Australian Women's Weekly recipe, their recipes are always good)

This has to of been the most labour intensive cake I've ever made, it honestly took 6 hours start to finish and I had to grate 8! cups of carrot, as you can see I used heirloom and orange carrots

I did split that time over a couple of days because I had to work and sleep and find time to make my other sister, Sister Number 1, a Baby Cupcake gift box for her friends new daughter, The Perth Royal Show where I got to revisit my childhood and feed a baby goat and the Kelly Clarkson concert on friday night, that girl has the most amazing voice, and I even squeezed in Coffee with my Miss Mary and her two delightful boys, nothing is relaxing as having a baby fall asleep on your chest.... freaking adorable

 How cute is the goat and the baby clothes are just adorable, as are the cupcakes in the gift box , They are Gluten Free Milk and Cookie Cupcakes, I've never used gluten free flour before but it seemed to work pretty well, the batter did look a little odd but it tasted and cooked fine, must be a weekend for firsts because I'd never made carrot cake before either.

 Anyway I should probably stop babbling and get to the cake because I know that's why your here,

I'm going to be lazy and just give you a link, but I have been up since 6 after getting home from said birthday party at 11 last night and worked all day (the cafe was really busy) so forgive me, I altered the recipe silghtly, by adding dates and used mayple cream frosting in between the 3 layers, and cream cheese frosting on the top and onside with toffee macadamia's (they were really hard to make) and crushed pistachio's and extra walnuts on top

 

I apologise for the quality of the photo, I literally took it in the car on the way (Told you I was time poor this weekend) but as you can see totally worth the effort and the reviews on J Cups' facebook page say it tasted amazing

 

 

 

Carrot cupcakes

Adapted from AWW's Bake

Makes 12

1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 & 1/2 cups (225g) self raising flour
1 cup (220g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups (480g) firmly packed coarsely grated carrot
3/4 cup (90g) coarsely chopped walnuts (I also added chopped dates)

Preheat oven to 180°C.

In a bowl, combine the oil, eggs, sifted flour, sugar and cinnamon. Stir in the carrot and chopped almonds. pour into cake tin

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until cooked. Let them stand for about 5 minutes, before placing on a wire rack to cool. then slice into layers and assemble with frosting between each layer, ice and decorate as desired

 

(Could not find a link to the recipe I used, guess no one else has para-phased the recipe from the book to the net, so there you go now it's there and it's actually a cupcake recipe so you can make carrot cupcakes if you wish, maybe frost with cream cheese frosting, then dust with crushed pistachios and top with a single toffee dipped macadamia, with spike...)

Cake after candles and first slice, yes that is my handbag in the background I have cupcake issues