PERFECT CARROT CAKE

High Petergate, York Its is probably the best positioned cafe in York, curved around a corner immediately adjacent to the entrance of York Minster. Most cafes could only dream of the footfall they must get in high season. Inside its a straightforward traditionally styled English Tea Room, with slightly butt clenched staff. After we'd arrived, somewhat late in the day it must be said, the waiter surreptitiously flipped the door sign to Closed. Not long before home now boys and girls. Now I rarely talk about my experience of the cafes I visit. I focus on the qualities of the carrot cake not the ambiance, customer service etc. I'm not a low rent version of Trip Adviser. But I do find myself warming up for a generalised gripe. I don't mind cafes that tick all the right boxes but fall short of their sales pitch. I absolutely love a cafe that pulls off something truly marvellous as if by magic, often by thinking in detail about the qualit...

Heydon Tea Rooms, Heydon, Norfolk. First, I must confess a prejudice, Heydon Tea Rooms is one of my all time favourite places to go for coffee and cake. The range and excellence of their cakes is unmatched. How would they perform when stepping onto the hallowed ground of Carrot Cake?  Well, if I'm being really really honest, this was never going to be the pure unadulterated Carrot Cake that I've extolled in fundamentalist detail in previous blog posts. The official title for it was Spiced Carrot and Orange Cake. So thats spice, tick, carrot, tick, orange? well, lets see. Orange can so easily sweep away all that comes into contact with it, so what started out in its bones the very essence of a carrot cake, is frogmarched into becoming a Tangerine.  As you may be able to detect from the photograph this cake could never be described as solid or weighty. The cake's texture was light, springy and moist. My god was it moist, moist wit...

Venetian Carrot Cake Recipe by Nigella Lawson from the Food Network website I have no idea whether Venetians ever make carrot cakes. I strongly suspect Nigella has taken her usual ladle full of liberties. That said the result is certainly Italian in style. It uses Olive Oil rather than butter or margarine, and has sweetened mascapone as a side accompaniment. The recipe itself is full of faffy touches like patting your grated carrots gently dry between double layers of kitchen towels, dry toasting your pine nuts and simmering your sultanas in rum. Though I assure you that it is well worth it. I made this cake for Jnansalin's birthday so I was hoping for something special and was not disappointed. Of the reviews on the website, some absolutely loved this recipe, others were either a bit sniffy or distinctly underwhelmed. What appeared to make a difference was how closely they stuck to the original recipe. At first its better to do a recipe as close to how its presen...

Whitby, Yorkshire. Just because I'm on holiday doesn't mean I neglect my search for the perfect Carrot Cake, I have merely broadened the designated search area. Also, one should not assume that because I was in one of my favourite cafes in Whitby, whose range of superlative cakes I could go into raptures about, that they were a shoe-in for a high rating. Reader read on. Well, it was a huge portion, on what was quite a small plate, perhaps they were trying to emphasise I was getting value for money. But you know me, I'm not easily swayed by appearances however beautifully confected, if it doesn't cut it once its placed inside my gob, then all that is for nought. Unfortunately once this cake hit my palette and the taste buds started to do their routine detective work, the first flavour hit was of ginger, no, spice, oh boy this is a mixed spice cake my dears. One might want to be charitable, and assume the baker had a bit of an over tipple with the spice...

Cley Next The Sea, North Norfolk. Though only a traybake (and you know how I  feel about those ) and a vegan one to boot, its qualities put a lot of the fully fledged carrot cakes I've reviewed in the shade. A very sturdy cake, with a pronounced texture on the pallate that says ' Yes!!! There is a lot of carrot in this!!!. Hurrah!!! Also, there's sultanas and walnuts in the mix, and perhaps a hint of coconut (not sure about that, but I thought I detected a smidgen) with a moderate amount of mixed spice. It was actually a rather good carrot cake. It held together well, and unlike some special diet carrot cakes I could mention, it didn't disssolve as soon as it hit mouth moisture, nor leave an aftertaste of bi-carb that would take the lining off your tongue. Nope, no such falings. In fact if you hadn't been told it was a vegan carrot traybake, I'd say no one would've noticed. That said, it maybe that it this vegan recipe works best as a tra...

The Old Theatre Deli, Southwell, Nottinghamshire. I know this is not on the North Norfolk coast, but its been quite a while since we've found a new cafe we haven't already visited, let alone a carrot cake. Whilst in Nottinghamshire on a Pre-Christmas family visit we spent a delightful half a day in Southwell. We took in the Minister and found an excellent Deli/Cafe, with a rather passable carrot cake. The cake was looking good from its external features, a healthy orangey brown tan with a substantail amount of filling and topping. Once you took a bite into it, the cake had that distinctly carroty texture to it, flavoured strongly with carrot too, and a decent enough amount of walnuts to be noticible on the palate. I think it had just mixed spices as additional flavouring, I couldn't detect anything else, but what there was was sufficient to complement rather than drown. Both the filling and topping were a cream cheese, so glory halleluyah ! There was a...

Overstrand, Norfolk. A strong aroma of citrus should have been sufficient warning, to indicate that all was not right here. The first mouthful. lost no time at all in confirming there was no trace of carrot flavour left in this travesty of a carrot cake, that had not been soaked, but sozzled, in orange flavouring. Not a nice orange flavouring either, but that peculiarly pungent catering variety the synthetic orange essence, similar to sucking out the liquid centre of a boiled sweet. A self-declared Gluten Free cake, it bore some of the sadly usual shortcomings of the genus. The cake had so little structure, stability or weight to it, that almost from the moment the cake hit my palate it quickly dissolved into nothing. Leaving a horrible dry after taste lingering like a layer of plaster dust on the tongue. Hubby suggests that they've used a gluten free flour of some kind without really doing enough to provide sufficient substance to keep the whole thing afloat, ...