PERFECT CARROT CAKE

Alby Crafts Tearoom, Norfolk Now, you might be forgiven for thinking, as I did when I read the name of this cake ~ ' this cake is wearing its hipster worthiness heavily tattooed on its arm' ~ Manuka Honey, honestly! Is this really a true blue carrot cake. or is it straight out of some fooffy cook book needlessly messing around with a traditional classic, just cos they can? I even thought twice about whether to review this as a carrot cake at all. Well, thankfully I pulled back from my high horses. As ever, what it looks like and what it tastes like are both qualities of a cake, but excellence in the former does not guarantee excellence in the latter. The proof is, as ever, always in the eating. The slice was substantial in height rather than girth. conforming to a contemporary cake trend for constructing your cake from multiple layers of cake mortared together, in this case, with a light whipped buttercream.  The cake consistency, you could see had a reassu...

Sheringham. Norfolk If I was blind, or at the very least blindfolded, and I took one bite out of this substantial wedge of a cake, I would have sworn it was a banana cake. Yes, here we are on only our third Carrot Cake Review and we're developing, without really trying I have to say, a bitch of a baking theme, its The Banana Masquerade.  Where a banana cake is trying to pass itself off as a carrot cake. Throw banana in any cake, muffin or flapjack, and I know why you are doing it, but please, keep the banana in its holster. Carroty sweetness is a very subtle delicate thing, so easy, it would seem, to completely be lost sight of in a banana swamp.  Now I'm confident they were having a good stab at making a carrot cake here.  It  has a very pleasing level of moistness, there was, unfortunately, a suggestion lingering on my palate of a slightly under cooked cake mix,  The visual texture is similar to a bonafide carrot cake, its also quite a bit ...

Sheringham, Norfolk, The cake on the plate looked enormous, declaring itself a value for money slice of cake loud and clear. You could even see the gratings of carrot creating an orange speckled effect. The first taste of the cake was that it was rather fluffy and, I have to say, excessive in the lightness of its texture. I don't know about you, but for me, one of the characteristics of a really good carrot cake is that because of its primary ingredient, ie. the carrot, it  tends to be a dense and weightier cake than most other species. When you envisage a carrot cake, fluffy, never comes to mind. I came to the conclusion that this cake was, in its very essence, made from a sponge mix with some large gratings of carrot thrown in for local colour. So, it carries its carrot credentials a bit weakly. That said, it still had some carrot taste to it, plus a mild amount of mixed spice. The overall appearance and taste did teeter towards bland, which is a shame. Had ...

Blakeney, Norfolk. At first glance, the cake itself had a good tan colour, with shards of walnut distributed through it fairly evenly. The butter cream, if indeed it was such a thing, was a little stingy, with an appearance of being thin in consistency, and hence no stiffness. That said there were no marzipan carrots on top ~ thankfully, and it was a decent wedge of cake, sometimes you can feel a bit cheated by the slither like size of a portion, but not here. On taking my first bite, wait, what's this taste, its not remotely carroty, no, its bananary. The first taste to assail my buds, was of ripe banana. Quite a lot of banana, so much I handed it to Hubby for his first impression, 'its as if they've served you a banana cake by mistake' said he. So, mucho mucho banana! You can tell from its visual texture that it does have carrot in it, but the banana completely overpowers it, and any flavour from the walnuts is swamped and reduced to a textural highlight. In ...

I've been conducting an experiment, in every cafe I eat , if they have one I eat only Carrot Cake. I'm trying to establish the qualities of the perfect version. As Hubby and I are planning to open a cafe, you could say this is essential research. This blog is to help assert more analytical clarity. Carrot Cakes vary, from 'this is just a brown sponge' to 'my god there's some mixed spice in that'. Even my very favourite cafes for coffee and ambience, can be let down by their cakes. So these cake reviews should not be taken as representative of the cafe's qualities as a whole. Anyway, on with the search.