Spring Pilates Block Booking 2......and more cake!

Spring Pilates Block Booking 2

Goodness me....at the time of writing there is already just one more week left before my 'half term' break. Equally that means that there is another block booking package available to book from Monday 8th February, and this time there is a choice of booking options:

Option 1: 6 x weeks from 15th February - 27th March = £57
Unlimited Zoom class pass and / or access to the video library of your choice (w/c 15th February video library access only).

Option 2: 5 x weeks from 22nd February - 27th March = £47.50
Unlimited Zoom Class Pass and / or access to the video library of your choice.

If you have not already joined us and would like to know more all you need to do is get in touch via my contact page HERE. 

During half term there is a pressing need for dear husband and I to clear the garage out, but my infinitely more exciting plan is to make another cake at some point.  Over recent weeks, after many years of being home-made cake less, I have actually made two...and as I am not the best baker in the world, I am feeling rather chuffed.

My most recent bake was a super moist and gorgeous carrot cake. All because I found an old recipe that I had hand scribbled and tucked into an old cookbook when I was in my 20's - eek. On closer inspection it was a bit flawed e.g., no detail around how long to cook it....and in what size of tin...mmm. Also, it was written using American cup measurements which I was going to have to look up now. Presumably these things were in my head in my 20's and albeit that being not so long ago (ahem) I could not remember the finer points. 

Anyway, after a bit of googling about carrot cake cooking times and American cup measurement conversions et al, I thought I would give the recipe a go. Well, it was fabulous, moist and gorgeous and suffice to say that I ate it almost every day for breakfast last week! Whoops. Here it is if you are interested:

Carrot Cake  

• 250g plain flour
• 2 tsps. bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsps. baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tsps. ground cinnamon
• 350g caster sugar
• 225ml vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsps. vanilla essence
• 225g grated carrots
• 120g chopped walnuts
• 1 227g tin of pineapple, drained and pureed 
• Grated zest of a large orange - this is the magic bit

Icing:

• 225g cream cheese
• 50g butter
• 250g icing sugar
• Finely grated zest of half a lemon
• A good grating or pinch of nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 180 C fan and prepare your tin. I used a round 20cm diameter deep sided cake tin, and lined it with baking paper.

Mix together your plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and the cinnamon. Make a well in the centre so that you can then add the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla essence. Beat with a mixer or good old wooden spoon before adding the grated carrots, walnuts, crushed pineapple and orange zest.

Pour into your prepared tin and bake. I baked my cake for an initial 45 minutes and then checked how it was doing. It was still soft in the middle, so I kept my eye on it for about another 20 minutes, until the centre felt slightly springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake came out clean. Allow to rest and cool slightly before removing from the tin. 

Beat the butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon and nutmeg until smooth and gloriously creamy. When the cake is totally cool cut it in half horizontally and fill with icing, keeping enough aside to smooth all over the top. This cake lasted us for a whole week and still tasted fresh and moist. It is full of goodness and joy!

Cheerio for now

Best wishes Jane F