Carrot Cake Recipe

Hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesday. I haven't shared any recipes in a while so today I thought I'd do just that.

The other day I decided to make a carrot cake using a new recipe my Aunty had shared with me. It was only once it had been in the oven for several minutes that I discovered I'd used self raising flour instead of plain flour - oops!

Luckily, once I'd trimmed off the excess cake which had 'grown' over and above the edge of the cake tin, it didn't make a difference at all to the taste or appearance. Here is the recipe for anyone who'd like to give it a go...


Carrot Cake

Cake:

3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
¾ cup cooking oil
1⅓ cups plain flour
½ tsp salt
1⅓ tsp bicarb soda
1⅓ tsp cinnamon
1⅓ tsp baking powder
2 cups grated carrot
½ cup walnuts (optional)
1 tsp vanilla


Cream Cheese Frosting:

125g cream cheese
1 tsp butter
2 cups icing sugar (sifted)
2 tsp lemon juice

Grease a square 20cm cake tin (I actually used a slice tin) and preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Beat eggs and sugar until frothy. Add oil, stir in sifted dry ingredients and lastly fold in carrot and vanilla. Bake for approx. 1 hour (I found the time to be slightly less). When cool ice with cream cheese icing and sprinkle chopped walnuts on top.

Also, before it's too late, head over to my friend Janette's store at My Sweet Prints where there are still a few hours left of her amazing sale. She has some truly wonderful prints at 40% off...

Lounge Room Help

Hope you’re having a great Monday and that your weekend was a wonderful one. Ours was occupied with a bit of heater shopping (more on that later in the week), a visit to Bunnings and a stop by my sister’s new house which she has just moved into.

Today I need some help from you all. We have been kindly offered a piano for our home if we’d like it. While I myself probably wouldn’t have the time to make use of it and while I’m a big believer in the whole “have nothing in your home you know not to be useful or beautiful,” we’re thinking it might be a good piece to have around for Grace when she's older.

My dilemma is where to put it. We’ve come to the conclusion that our lounge is the only room where it could possibly fit and the place where the new buffet we bought is probably the only option which means a bit of rearranging of furniture. I’ve placed a big box covered in a dark coloured sheet in the spot we’re thinking of to try and get a picture of what it would be like with a piano in that spot.

Do you think moving the buffet to the dining area looks too cramped? It definitely makes it darker (something I am really trying to avoid) so I’m thinking I could possibly make slipcovers in a light coloured fabric for the dining chairs to brighten up the space (I’ve wrapped some white fabric around one to try and picture this). The newspaper pinned to the wall is my ‘imaginary artwork’. I’d really appreciate any opinions. The first above are of our lounge how it was and the ones below are my ‘mock piano set-up’ and a photo of the piano itself. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated... (and please ignore the ugly carpet and blinds as these are next on our 'hit list')...

Winter Touches

Hope you are all enjoying your Friday and are all set for the weekend. Tomorrow, we are going hunting for a new inbuilt gas heater. It’s been really chilly here at night and early in the mornings and I am desperate to get our new heater sorted out ASAP before winter really sets in!

Recently, I’ve been on the hunt for a nice winter throw for our living room couches. I’m picturing something in a chunky, knitted style that is cosy and warm to curl up under at night. I’ve seen some lovely ones at Country Road but I’m not sure I want to spend that much. If I could knit, I’d give making one a go myself.

I was reading something the other day that talked about how in countries where the shift in seasons is more pronounced, people make quite significant changes to their interiors to reflect this. Aside from the obvious cranking up of the heater or lighting of a wood fire, do you have anything you specifically do or change in your home when the cooler winter weather arrives?

Image sources: #1 #2 unknown

Organizing Recipes

After recently seeing my sister-in-law's and my best friend's great new kikki-K recipe folders, it got me thinking about the system I use to organize my recipes.

In addition to my recipe books, I used to use a card system and had a massive disorganized pile of other recipes torn from magazines or scribbled on bits of notepaper. It was impossible to put my finger on anything in my bundle of tear outs and I couldn’t include any pictures on my index cards.

Nowadays, I use display folders for my ‘tried and tested’ recipes (those ones that you can easily tear the plastic sleeve out of and push back in place). Each folder contains a different type of food (pasta, meat, desserts etc). These recipes are ones others have written out and passed on to me, that I've torn out from the newspaper or magazines or that I've printed off the Internet (I get a lot of recipes from the Taste website). I have made all the recipes before and they have ‘passed the test’, meaning they are ones I would make again.





As for the pile of torn out recipes I used to have, they are now organized in a ring-binder file in plastic sleeves. If I decide to try out a new salad for example, I can simply empty out the sleeve marked ‘salads’ and pick one to cook. If it ends up being a winner, I transfer it to the appropriate display folder, otherwise it ends up in the bin.

How do you organize your recipes? Do you have a folder or a card system or some other method you like?

Image sources: #1 unknown #2 #3

Q + A

This week, the lovely Mirela of Melli’s Designs tagged me to play along with a fun little game where I am to give my answers to the following questions. Here goes...

1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I’ve always thought it would be nice to experience Parisian life. It would be lovely to spend my days wandering through the streets, stopping in all the quaint little shops and enjoying delicious treats in the cafes.


2. What is your favourite band?
I like listening to a little bit of everything. However, my favourite music to listen to is anything by Norah Jones.



3. If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be?
I’ve always admired Donna Hay – I think it would be fun to work on all the many projects she is a part of (and sampling all those delicious recipes wouldn’t hurt either!!)


4. Concert or Broadway show?
I’d pick a Broadway show – I love seeing a production come together on stage.

5. Theme song for your life?
Tricky question – I was trying to think of something about happiness - maybe Happy Days??

6. Would you choose a fancy dinner at a nice restaurant or a picnic in the park?
I’d pick dinner at a nice restaurant. However, I prefer a café or one that isn’t too fancy.

7. Favourite place to shop?
I love buying things on Etsy – I always get so excited when a little parcel arrives.

8. Favourite movie?
Definitely The Notebook (I sob like a baby every time I watch it). I also love Dirty Dancing, Notting Hill, The Holiday, Amelie and Moulin Rouge.


I'd like to tag the following bloggers for this game. There’s no pressure whatsoever to join in but I’d love to read your take on the questions above...

Nicole at Bubby Makes Three
Catherine at Little Glowing Lights
Katrina at Katrina Chambers
Anna at Cornflake
Sophie at The Littlest Things

While I’m on the topic of blog games and awards, a few weeks ago, I had been given the Happy 101 award here by two lovely bloggers and since then, I have also received it from Catherine at A Time To Create. I won’t repeat my list of things that make me happy but you can see what I had previously written here. Thank you Catherine for passing this on to me.



Also, Michelle at Paper Tree Design had passed on the Versatile Blogger Award to me. For this award I was to write 7 things you may not know about me and to pass it on to fellow bloggers. I won’t bore you with more facts about myself today, but I would like to pass this award on to…

1. Abby at Two Little Dicky Birds
2. Christine at Sunshine and Lollypops
3. Maja at Bella, Beach and the Bush
4. Megan at Somewhere Along A Winding Path
5. Shawna at Poppies and Sunshine

Please visit these lovely blogs and say hi if you’re not already familiar with them …

Images sources: #1 #2 #3 #4