PERFECT CARROT CAKE

  Perhaps I've erroneously assumed you all knew what The Golden Rules of Carrot Cake are. So I've decided to publish them. Here they all are then,the twelve guideline rules. Those things to look out for and be avoided by those who make carrot cakes and those who eat them. Never have to consume a malformed, unpleasant carrot cake ever again. You can no longer make the excuse that you did not know! Learn them or have your taste buds abused. Golden Rule of Carrot Cake No 1 A spice cake is not a carrot cake. This is blindingly obvious, but I have stomached this sort of fart inducing cake far far too many times. Grating a solitary carrot into a basic sponge mix, then trying to disguise the paltry amount of an essential carrot cake ingredient, by throwing in a whole sack load of mixed spice. This should fool no one of anyone discernment. It's not as if carrots are a rare and expensive root vegetable, they are not bleeding saffron! A bald man wearing a mismatched toupee only attra...

  Carrot Cake made by Sponge Cakes Ltd, Holt After the edible gloriousness of the last carrot cake recipe, did we now come crashing down to earth with a more prosaic version? Well, this slice of carrot cake was made by Sponge Cakes Ltd, situated on the delightfully named Sponge Rise in Holt. This is, wait for it, my first review of a mass produced gluten free carrot cake. Good, got that sentence out without implying a modicum of snooty disdain. Hubby and I were taking our last day off before re-opening the shop after lockdown. We were doing a favourite circular walk down the promenade from Wells next the Sea along the pinewoods to Holkham Bay, down Queen Anne's Drive to the Hall and back through the estate to Wells. On the way stopping off at the beach cafe for a takeaway coffee and cake. They'd just re-opened so the choice of cakes was not extensive or that appealing. Now that I'm not averse to reviewing commercially produced confectionery, I feel a degree of glee at embra...

  Recipe from the  BBC Good Food website a Classic Carrot Cake by Micheal Caines As this was to be my birthday cake, made for me by Hubby ( TDCP - The Demon Cake Professional ) even he expressed a certain nervousness about permitting me to review it.  However, once it came out well, and what's more one of the best carrot cake recipes that I've tasted, he was much happier to let me loose on a recipe review.  There are carrot cake recipes and then there are carrot cake inspired recipes. The latter perhaps started out believing they were carrot cakes, but ended up a sponge cake with mere decorative pretensions. This recipe is not one of those. One glance down the ingredients list and your jaw drops through the floor at '525gms of grated carrot!' Carrot cake recipes frequently operate between 150 - 350 gms max of carrot, most baulking at anything over 250 gms. One can perfectly understand why, because the more carrot you use the overall moisture level in the mix increase...

  Wells next the Sea, North Norfolk. One family appear to run a large part of the shops in Wells. The bakery has been there for decades and is a very traditional bakery that knows its market. To my tastebuds their cakes and pastries tend to be seriously over iced and are prone to prioritise size over taste. So a sweet pastry will be absolutely huge, but with sugar drowning out the strengths of any other flavourings.  Bigger is rarely ever better. On a day in the middle of lockdown when no cafes are open and only one bakery that coincidentally also serves coffee, and this was it. I thought 'go on give their carrot cake a whirl', broaden your case portfolio. The coffee was just a coffee, straightforwardly generic, nothing fancy. Though it too tasted sweet, probably due to dropping one of those small catering condensed cream pods into it. We also bought and ate a very tasty savoury Spinach & Feta Pasty. The carrot cake came in a cellophane fronted paper bag that had adhered t...

  Cromer, North Norfolk This visit and review took place and was written before the lockdown. This cafe is tucked to one side of the High Street facing the magnificent elegance and edifice that is Cromer Parish Church. The cafe is overlooked in many other ways, I'll mention two. One, in Winter its windows mist up so badly you'd think there was a sauna going on inside, and two, its a not fully convincing hybrid of cafe and art/craft gallery. From the street it presents a mixed message: what would make you go in there; what is this trying to be? Does the gallery have something to say other than the provision of quality caffeine and catering and is this integrated  into the ethos of the cafe as a whole, or is the rest of it solely a bit of arty set dressing? We've been to this place a few times, its never been atrociously bad, but any expectations of superlative coffee or cakes will always be shaken awake from their wistful dreaming. The art on show speaks volumes. The present...

Castle Howard, Yorkshire. Its a glorious Winter's sunny day, we are at Castle Howard. The air is crisp, its bright, the colours and shadows are sharp. After a ramble around the landscaped estate grounds with its follies and bridges going absolutely nowhere in particular, we queued for much a needed lunch. The logistics and layout of The Courtyard Cafe leaves much to be desired, it is not a joy for anyone. It is as if whoever designed it wilfully ignored the most outstanding flaws in their own floor plan. No matter how busy the cafe is you will have to queue to be seated. Those who are incoming queue inside the entrance way where the outgoing are also trying to do their best to exit. Because the cafe's toilets are outside in the courtyard, people are understandably forever quickly nipping out for a pee or a poo, then back in again. All this accompanied by politely embarrassed side shuffling and  'sorry, can I just get by'.  Folk, all very like us, who after a grand morni...

Stamford, Lincolnshire As we returned from our North Yorkshire holiday we diverted our route home to take a B L F break ( bum, leg & food ) in Stamford. We also wanted to investigate a local fabric shop to see if they had anything to suitable for Cottonwood Home (there was). Stamford as a market town, is a place with it's own distinct charm, full of beautiful honey coloured stone fronted buildings, most of them significantly of a certain age and maturity. Though it looks as though Stamford ought to be a county town, it isn't, it is, however, slap bang next to Burleigh House and its estate. It is clear that this and its position by a main north south axis road have always left both hands deeply plunged into the lucre. But like any small town with a shopping centre across this island, in this era, it has significant missing teeth in its high street's dentures. There is also an uneasy 'ghetto zoning' of high and low end shops that betrays an unevenly spread wealth ...

Goodramgrate, York. You know how it is, your on holiday in Yorkshire, its mid January, you're prowling the streets looking for extra special cafes and cakes, but you aren't sure quite where to find them. So on an overcast afternoon on a day trip to York, we are on a mission to discover that unique cafe in possession of an excellent cake range, appetising in quality and confection. Not having much luck, we are beginning to become tired and dispirited. Then we stumbled across this cafe, gaze into the window at cakes with a certain rustic roughness, a finish frequently affected by cafes in cosmopolitan cities. What's more they do have a substantial looking carrot cake. Yes, this seemed very appealing, its an Italian family run cafe, what could possibly be wrong? Italy is the birth place of cafe culture, after all. The decor looks fine, quite modern with dark blue lampshades, gold lined inside, panted wood tables rubbed back, a thoroughly classic style of cafe environment. Yet ...

  Hunstanton, West Norfolk. This Cafe overlooks the main green that slopes down towards the promenade, where everything that Hunstanton can throw at you as a childish diversion resides. The cafe's interior, sits uncomfortably between spacious and sparse. I'd like to say it was a symphony in grey, but that would require much more effort than the uniform pale grey tone here can make. Bare of much to ornament its walls without the satisfaction of achieving minimalism, it is, in short, characterless - with very sticky tabletops. It was a bit late in the day for a Flat White so I toned down the caffeine to a Latte. Not that I needed to let such cosmopolitan worries about caffeine intake get the better of me. The Latte came in a mug, yes, a generic white ceramic mug straight from the local cash and carry. The contents looked disconcertingly like used dishwater. Beneath its feeble frothy surface lay what was in fact just an ordinary milky cup of coffee. Inoffensive were it not for its...