Carrot Cake



I've had couple of requests for this one. It's very popular at coffee time at work and in Devon! It's straight from the Dairy Cookbook 1996 edition. The topping is delicious, soft cheese, icing sugar, double cream and vanilla and the cake is really moist. You'll need to line a loose bottomed 21cm (8") tin. To be really indulgent, you could make two and stack them with a layer of the topping in between. This recipe has no cinnamon but there is so much going on in there that you don't need it.

For an 8" cake

225g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
150g soft light brown sugar
50g chopped walnuts
50g raisins
100g grated carrots
2 ripe bananas peeled and mashed
2 eggs
150ml vegetable oil

For the topping

65ml fresh double cream
50g sifted icing sugar
75g full fat soft cheese (softened)
½ tsp vanilla essence
chopped walnuts to decorate

Cake
1. Sift together flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl and add sugar.
2. Add nuts, carrots,raisins and bananas, stir.
3. Beat the eggs with the oil and pour onto the mix. Stir until well mixed.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake at 180°c gas mark 4 for 1½ hours until firm to the touch or when a skewer comes out clean.
5. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire tray.

Topping
1. Whip the double cream until softly stiff
2. Cream the icing sugar, cheese and vanilla together with a fork. Fold in the cream.
3. Spread over the top of the cake with a palette knife and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

The Photograph
I took this so long ago I can only guess at the lighting set up. It looks like two lights at 45° left and right. I think it was a softbox on the right and a diffused brolly on the left.

Mushroom Croustade

I found this tasty recipe in the Nut Dishes section of Rose Elliots "Vegetarian Cookery". You can make this with any suitably prepared nuts. I've used almonds and my granary loaf breadcrumbs in the croustade. (The original recipe calls for fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs. Mine were a bit moist so use freshly crumbed stale breadcrumbs in preference to off the shelf processed ones.)

4 -6 servings from an 8" (21cm) loose bottomed flan tin

75g flaked almonds

75g freshly made stale granary breadcumbs

75g ground almonds

1 small onion, skin removed and grated (if your eyes are sensitive to onions, mince in a food processor)

1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped finely

90g softened butter

Salt and ground black pepper

450g small button mushrooms, sliced

300ml soured cream

Freshly grated nutmeg

Paprika

1. Heat the oven to 180°c gas mark 4.

2. Keep a few flaked almonds for garnish (you can toast them to enhance the flavour). In a bowl, stir together the breadcrumbs, ground and remaining flaked almonds, the minced onion, garlic and 75g of the butter. Season well with salt and pepper. (add the butter gradually until the mixture holds together. Depending on the amount of moisture in your breadcrumbs and onion, you may not need all of the butter)

3. Mould the mixture into the bottom and up sides of your loose bottomed flan tin. Place in the centre of the oven and cook until golden and crisp, (about 20 minutes).

4. Melt the rest of the butter in a frying pan and cook the sliced mushrooms for 15 -20 minutes until they have shrunk and lost all of their moisture.

5. Cover the base of the croustade with the mushrooms, season well with salt  pepper and nutmeg and spread 150ml of the soured cream over them, allowing some to show through the cream. Add a generous shake of paprika.

6. Place the croustade back into the oven to warm through for 10 - 15 minutes, remove from the tin and serve on a warm plate garnished with the reserved (toasted) flaked almonds. Serve the remaining soured cream separately.

This dish is also delicious served cold as buffet food made in 10cm mini flan tins. They also make ideal individual starters with a green salad. If you're going "nuts" at Christmas, why not try this to kick off your Christmas lunch?

The Photograph

Nice even soft lighting was achieved with the large soft box above the table, white reflectors below the lens and a small soft box from the rear at 45°above to give the specular highlight on the cream. Unfortunately the depth of field was not sufficient to bring the front of the croustade into focus but this was the best shot to show the texture and colour of the crust. The aperture was f11, f16 may have done it! Must try harder.

Choc Chip and Hazelnut Biscuits

These went down a real treat in the office. Based on a plain biscuit recipe from the Dairy Cookbook, I added chopped roasted hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

Makes about 30 biscuits

225g self raising flour

pinch of salt

150g butter

100g caster sugar (I used unrefined)

75g chocolate chips (plain or milk - your choice)

65g chopped roasted hazelnuts

½ tsp vanilla essence

beaten egg to mix

1. Sieve flour and salt into a bowl.

2. Rub in butter (I use the food processor for this - it's easier on the hands and a lot quicker).

3. Stir in the sugar, nuts and chocolate chips.

4. Add the vanilla, then enough beaten egg to make a stiff dough.

5. Turn the mixture out onto a floured work top and knead until smooth.

6. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

7. Roll out the dough thinly and using a 5cm biscuit cutter, cut into rounds.

8. Place on  silicone paper on a baking tray, leaving enough room for them to spread. Prick with a fork and bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 180°c, Gas mark 4 or until pale gold.

My baking tray takes 12 biscuits. Be prepared to cook three batches.

The Photograph

I was thinking how to make a plate of biscuits look interesting and came up with this idea using limited depth of field and the mug in the background. The original shot was wider and I tried to include steam from the mug but I couldn't make it work. (that's a another project entirely). I cropped very close. The reflections are from a sheet of clear acrylic placed on top of the the seamless black cotton backdrop. The lighting is very simple, the 60cm soft box above the table with a silver reflector above the lens lifting the shadows.below the plate. 



Seeded Granary Rolls

Nothing beats fresh baked rolls to eat with your soup. These are homemade and I make them once a week. If they are frozen within an hour of coming out of the oven, they keep well in the freezer for up to a week. After that, they lose texture and start to dry out.

I use my breadmaker to prepare the dough and if you have one, try this recipe. I've not tried it for hand baking but I'm pretty sure it would work just as well.

1. I add the ingredients to my baking pan in this order: (makes 8 rolls)

 1⅛ cup (standard cup) water at around 25-30°c
 2 tbsp dried milk powder
 ½ tbsp demarara sugar
 2 tbsp vegetable oil
 1½ tsp salt
 1 cup of strong white bread flour
 2 cups of Hovis Granary malted wheat flour
 1½ tsp dried bread yeast

2. Set your breadmaker to the dough programme (mine is 1h 30m)
3. When the dough is ready, knead it for 6 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 8 (about 90 - 100g per roll) and shape into a ball.
5. Brush the tops with beaten egg and dip into a bowl of mixed seeds. (e.g. sunflower, pumpkin, sesame)
6. Place on baking paper on a baking tray and put in a warm place to prove (I use the airing cupboard) They are ready when they have doubled in size.
7. Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 (220°c)
8. Reduce the heat to gas 6 (200° c) Put the baking tray near the top of the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
9. Cool on a wire tray and freeze what you don't need within an hour.

If you don't want to seed them, brush them with egg, milk or vegetable oil as a glaze.
I perfected this recipe after a bit of trial and error. I found that the recipe in the breadmaker hand book for rolls gave a dough that was too wet and the rolls spread out instead of rising up.

The Photograph

This high key photo was lit from above by the 60cm soft box and the background (seamless white paper) was overexposed 1½ stops using two wide angle flashes either side and below the table. The camera was low, at table level and I have cropped the image tight around the central roll of the group.