EASY BAKES TO CURE LOCKDOWN BOREDOM
I had NEVER baked before lockdown, and now I've made cakes, brownies, blondies, bread, and cookies! I'm basically Paul Hollywood at this point...Okay, maybe I am a bit more like a Noel Fielding in the Bake Off tent but it's not bad going for someone who has barely held a whisk before!
This blogpost is going to spill the secrets on how to make baking look easy, and it may or may not include a few cheats if you wanna fake bake until you make it!
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 450ml/16fl oz vegetable oil (sunflower or olive oil are good substitutes!)
- 400g/14oz plain flour
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 550g/1lb 4oz sugar
- 5 free-range eggs
- ½ tsp salt
- 2½ tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
- 525g/1lb 3oz carrots, grated
For the icing:
- 200g/7oz cream cheese
- 150g/5½oz caster sugar
- 100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened
So what you want to do is pre-grate the carrots and pre-heat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Then get the biggest cake tin you own (preferably 10 inch), or a couple smaller ones and grease/ line them (this cake is huge!)
After that just toss all the ingredients, except the carrots, into a bowl and stir until it's all mixed. Then stir in the carrots after that.
Pour in the mixture, or distribute into smaller tins, and pop it in the oven for about an hour (or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle)
PLEASE NOTE if you are using smaller tins, it may be done in a shorter time so check it frequently!
Once it is out of the oven and cooling on a rack, shove all the icing ingredients into a bowl and beat until fluffy. If the mixture is a bit lumpy, you can put it in the microwave- only do about 10 seconds at a time.
Once the cake is cool, put the icing on however you like, I just used a wooden spoon but you can make it as fancy or as simple as you like. And I decorated the edge with half walnuts, but obviously this is also optional.
And voila! A perfect carrot cake! And all you did was put all the ingredients into a big bowl at once and then stuck it in the oven - could not be easier!
Now if you want to really cheat your way through quarantine baking, then I recommend Wright's Baking mixes because they literally could not be more simple. You put the desired cake mix into a bowl, add some water and oil, and then bake...it is SO easy! I tried their Orange cake mix and it was sooo tasty (I did add some chocolate chips so it tasted like a Jaffa Cake). But they have a whole range of easy mixes, I've grabbed the chocolate fudge, and the ginger cake ones to test from my local shop but their website has scones, breads, and lots of different cake varietys! (you can also buy them on Amaozn) The orange cake didn't last long in my house so I think the mix is a win! Plus the whole mix was under £2 which is crazy!
I hope this has given you a few ideas to be getting on with while this lockdown lasts, tag me on My Instagram if you bake anything I've mentioned today! And I would love some feedback in the comments or via DM on my insta (@thelifeoffaith), good or bad, I don't mind!
Happy baking and stay safe.
Love always,
Faith x
