I miss baking dearly. Initially I wanted to bake for Yvonne’s birthday and I ended up staying in the hospital for about a week. Now Vincent’s birthday is coming…… and ooohhh apparently he’s busy planning his own birthday party according to Chris.

My parents don’t let me go near the oven, say…. radiation wor. It’s carcinogenic, a big NO-no to my current condition. My oncologist is on leave for a week, will be seeing her only this Wednesday for the first consultation. I want to get over with all the treatment fast. I’m tired of going through all these alone. I want to be free and have fun like other youngsters.

So I don’t have an oven now. Can’t bake either. Even if I can bake now, I don’t think my cake will turn out nice bcos people says our mood affects our cake. When you are sad, your cake won’t rise. Only have old pictures taken back in Kursk and the recipe in my hand.

Here goes, the first cake I bake and it was a successful one as well.
My first Carrot Cake.

Ingredients
3 eggs
1¾ cups sugar
1 cup sunflower/canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour
2 cups grated carrot
1 cup walnuts
1 cup chopped pineapples (I use canned pineapples bcos Russia obviously don’t have pineapples)

1) Combine flour, salt, soda and cinnamon; set aside.
2) Combine eggs, sugar, oil; mix until smooth.
3) Stir in flour mixture little by little at a time until well blended.
4) Stir in carrots, walnuts, pineapple, vanilla. Mix evenly.
5) Pour into 9’x13’ inch pan.
6) Bake at 350ºF/180ºC for about 45-55 minutes until toothpick come out clean when inserted into the cake. (timing depends on the heat distribution of your oven. I tried baking using different ovens and realize each baking time is different. Maybe take shorter or longer time.)

For frosting you can use this:
Buttermilk Glaze
1 cup sugar
½ cup buttermilk (1 cup low fat milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar/lemon juice = 1 cup buttermilk)
½ cup butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter or solid margarine, softened
1 (16 ounce) package powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla

I don’t put frosting on my cakes usually bcos… bcos…
1. I’m lazy 2. It’s fattening 3. fail to obtain some of the ingredient (just lazy to go out buy =D)

Ta-daa…. yummy carrot cakes.

This cake is kinda big, so enough to share with uncles, aunties, ah mah, ah soh, ah pek, and friends.

I haven’t try out other recipe for carrot cake yet. If you have good recipe to share, feel free to drop me a message =). I’m ready to learn to be a better baker.