PERFECT CARROT CAKE

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,

Carrot Cake Recipe - by Nan on the All Recipes UK website. I chose this recipe because of all the recipes I've found so far it had the highest amount of carrot in its mix. Most carrot cake recipes have between 200 to 300 grams, this has 650 grams !  I was intrigued to see how that would turn out. The mix has crushed pineapple, as well as sultanas and walnuts, so it really ups the moisture levels. It also has four eggs and bicarb, so, unsurprisingly the binding and rise on this cake look like being substantial. This is not going to be, by any stretch of the imagination, dairy free, so this wont be your all inclusive universal carrot cake to suit everyone. The recipe looked to have enough moisture in it, so I drained the excess juice from the crushed pineapple and the steeped carrot and sugar mix too. The oven temperature of 180 degrees didn't say whether it was fan assisted or not, and was supposed to be for 45-50 minutes, but it ended up being an hour. I had

Sheringham, Norfolk For what was actually quite a modest sized piece of cake, this was, at £3, quite an expensive piece of confectionery.  Also. this was basically a tray bake, not that I've anything against tray bakes, but for a cafe that's a bit of a cheaty short cut, particularly if you are going to charge £3. Immediately noticeable as your knife cuts into the cake is that it instantly falls into crumbled heaps, never a good thing. The cake announced itself as being dairy free, but its been left without much else to bind it together. Apart from using the 'demon banana', there are other ways to bind it, such as a flour and water paste, an egg replacer, just using a wetter mix, or in this case avoiding over baking it. Flavour wise, your taste buds are instantly hit by heavy tones of coconut, probably coconut oil this being quite a hipstery establishment, and any carroty flavour becomes a bit of an after taste. They've also been quite heavy o

Carrot Cake Recipe ~ from Neal's Yard Wholefood Cook Book, Rachel Haigh, Way back in April the impetus for making this cake was to celebrate Hubby's birthday. This isn't by any means my first cake, but it was my debut carrot cake recipe. I thought that I'd broaden my search for the perfect carrot cake, by trying out different recipes. When I worked in Central London, I used to buy this carrot cake from Neal's Yard Bakery, sadly no more, and remember it as being rather good. I picked their wholefood cookbook up some years later in a remainder outlet, and some of its recipes are well established favourites. This first attempt at the recipe was OK, but wasn't quite the archetypal carrot cake I remember it being. Rather than do a single cake, I split the mix into two sandwich tins. I had to adjust the baking time, but not by quite enough, so the cake got slightly over cooked, and hence a tad dry. The recipe has sultanas and walnuts in it,

Sheringham Park , Norfolk. It was quite a moderately sized slice of carrot cake, but the price probably reflects that. I've certainly had bigger, but then size isn't everything, and those huge slices often turn out to be flavourless sponges anyway.  The cake had a good open texture, with that reassuringly orangey brown that any half decent carrot cake will possess, like a healthy baked tan.  It also had a rugged smattering of sultanas and walnuts, some of which, unfortunately still lay on the bottom of the cake. They probably weren't well enough mixed in. The first flavour you hit, once you stop observing the external indicators and sink your molars into it? Well, actually its an excellent carroty taste, not overly moist, but then not gingerbread dry, probably about right. The texture is good, the recipe appears to possess a goodly amount of carrot, it has avoided that weightiness, solid and soggy, that the truly worthy wholesome carrot cake can bec