I’ve been promising my housemate a carrot/ hummingbird cake for months. First, it was going to be a post- thesis cake, then a birthday cake, then a thank you for helping with some work stuff cake, but he went overseas and then I did, so it kept getting put off! Having been backpacking in Burma and Thailand for six weeks, one of the things I missed the most was having access to a kitchen to cook my own food, and particularly baking. I’ve heard good things about the Tate Bakery cookbook so I googled a recipe and found this one http://learnfromyou.weebly.com/1/post/2011/11/kathleens-carrot-cake.html. I liked that it incorporated pineapple, so it seemed to be a combination of a carrot and hummingbird cake.
I used brown sugar, and reduced the amount to a bit more than one cup. I also reduced the amount of oil to one cup, and increased the canned pineapple to compensate. For the icing, I used one package of cream cheese, lemon juice, and approximately a cup of icing sugar (I really didn’t measure this.) I had to beat it by hand because I’d forgotten that my electric beaters are broken. Oops!
I was really pleased with the texture of the cake, it’s very moist with a bit of a crumb and I like the addition of the pineapple. I think it could use a bit more spice (maybe nutmeg) and more walnuts. Also, I realised afterwards I should have added raisins. My housemate really enjoyed it and took most of it to work and said it disappeared quickly.
abutterybiscuitbase 