I am not a huge fan of carrot cake. The only reason I really eat carrot cake is actually for the cream cheese frosting. Mmmm… that cream cheese frosting is too die for.

As a family, we are not carrot lovers. Excluding my mother of course, she is the complete opposite. Thanks to her Aunty teaching her the ways of the British people we tend to eat British sometimes and that means veggies and more veggies, from gem squash and sweetcorn, to peas and carrots. Those three London sisters never touched curry, it was all boils boils boils and they even loved cabbage soup. They did all live into the 90’s.

I am going to tell you a secret and it will most likely get me haunted tonight by my mum’s favourite Aunty but I have to tell you this.

Her name was Patho, she studied forensic medicine and then went on to qualify as a cardiologist. She drove a red little car that she would zoom around town in…this was all before my time though, but anyway she was very prim and proper and she hated anyone knowing her age.

That’s what killed her in the end. Some cousin of my grandfather’s, the Auntie’s son was trying to put a family tree together and well he phoned her to ask her how old she was and all the other sisters and brothers ages and a week later she was gone… that of course is my version of the story, but she died of old age she was 91 but she told everyone she was 76. To make matters worse, the box that they put her ashes in, the funeral parlor made a plaque with her name on and guess what else… her age, she will forever be turning in her grave knowing that for as long as that box lasts, everyone is going to know how old she really was.

The only memory I have of her, is that she would hand out coin chocolates and dish out the toiletries that they gave out on the plane, the toothpaste, the eye patch and we were over to moon with toothpaste… try giving that now to children and they will look at you like you have lost your marbles.

I met her once in my life time, and she taught me that you never finish your drink completely, it is very impolite, you leave a little bit at the bottom of the glass.. I was 10 when she taught me this, we were sitting in the lounge at the Holiday Inn, in Summerstrand, drinking passion fruit and lemonade waiting for my mother and grandmother, when she saw me draining the lass droplets of my drink.

Thanks to this young lady, you will always find carrots in the fridge and gem squash in the pantry.

And you will always find them in the compost heap two weeks later, we very seldom use them and when I do use them to make something for my mother, she complains she is not a small child to be eating boiled vegetables… Lord help me, not to force feed her spinach… another traumatic experience for my mother and it also involves Aunty Patho, but that is a story for another blog post.

Back to the carrots.

While I was cleaning out the fridge this week, I came across three lonely carrots left behind and well they were still fine, no hair or little roots, they would live to see another week.

As I was paging through “Food52, Genius Desserts,” cookbook deciding what cake to make for Sunday tea time. I came across a carrot cake recipe that was covered in chocolate instead of cream cheese icing.

What was the harm in giving it a try?

And it didn’t require me to peel or dice or shred the carrots, just roughly chop, throw into a blender and let it do all the hard work.

The original recipe was one that contained eggs, I converted into an eggless one with the substitution with a vegan egg.

Again I repeat this was supposed to be for Sunday tea time, my parents were impatient and nicely cut themselves a slice for an evening snack while I was in the shower.

I did ask how they enjoyed the cake and my mother couldn’t stop telling me how much she enjoyed it, it was not too sweet and not dense, just light and fluffy and the chocolate over the top, was just perfect and it hit all the right spots.

My dad, he enjoyed it, he said the cake was not too rich, but you know him, he ate the cake underneath the icing and left the parts that were covered in chocolate.

NO CAKE NEXT WEEK…let’s just see how they will like that.

Ingredients for the cake:

• 270g x carrots, washed and roughly chopped.
• 1 ¾ x cups castor sugar.
• ¾ x cup + 1 x tbsp. cooking oil.
• 4 x vegans eggs or ( 3 x large chicken eggs).
• 1 ¾ x cup + 2 x tbsp. cake flour.
• 1 ½ x tsp baking powder.
• A pinch of salt.

Ingredients for the glaze:

• 200g x milk chocolate.
• 100g x butter.

Method:

• Place the carrots, sugar, eggs and oil into a blender.
• Blitz till nice and smooth.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the cake flour, castor sugar, salt and baking powder.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk till smooth.
• Pour into a lightly greased bundt cake tin.
• Pop into a preheated oven and bake at 180 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, before turning out onto a cooling rack an allowing to cool completely.
• To make the glaze, place the chocolate and butter in a heat proof dish and melt over a pot of simmering water.
• Once the glaze is nice and smooth, remove from the heat and allow to cool till the glaze thickens and will coat the back of a spoon.
• Evenly pour over the cake and allow to set before serving.