Easy peasy lemon squeezy.... carrot cake

Easy peasy lemon squeezy carrot cake.. because it really is so easy and has a bit of a twist on the cream cheese frosting. I actually turned mine into a tray bake to take to work for my colleagues as an end of week treat. You can alternatively divide the mixture between 2 9 inch round tins or even divide into cupcake cases and you'll get 24 cupcakes.

To get a decent 18 - 20 square pieces as a tray bake you will need

For the cake :

340g/12oz self raising flour
170g/6oz soft light brown sugar
170g/6oz soft dark brown sugar
340g/12oz softened margarine*
7 medium eggs - at room temperature*
4 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp milk
3 large carrots grated 

50g/2oz roughly chopped walnuts

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 

125g/4oz dried mixed fruit 

2 tablespoon golden syrup 

juice and zest of a large orange

For the cream cheese topping/filling:

250g/8oz marscapone cheese

450g/16oz full fat cream cheese

170g/6oz icing sugar 

zest and juice of 1 lime 

100g/4oz chopped walnuts

• Preheat your oven to 180c/350f/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a deep rectangular baking dish/2 deep 9 inch round tins/ 2 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake cases.
• Cream the margarine with both sugars with an electric whisk or a freestanding mixer until pale in colour and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and mix until smooth.
• Add in the flour, olive oil, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, golden syrup, orange juice and zest, and whisk together till smooth
• Fold in the carrots, dried fruit and walnuts. Pour the mixture into the tray or divide equally between the 2 tins or cupcake cases.
• Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes or until lightly golden in colour and the cake starts to just come away from the edges of the tins/tray. Alternatively use a skewer/ cocktail stick to check that the cake has cooked. The skewer should come out clean if the cake is cooked through. If it comes out a little sticky, give the cake a little longer.
• Leave the cake to cool slightly before removing from the tray/tins ; Then leave to cool completely.
• Make up the frosting once the cake has cooled by mixing together all the ingredients till smooth and there are no lumps and spread generously over the tray baked cake or for the cakes spread some of the filling over one half of the cakes, place the other half on top and spread the top with some more of the frosting. For the cupcakes, just spoon the frosting over the tops. Don't worry if the frosting isn't perfect and neatly done - slightly messy an rustic frosting is perfect for this cake.
• Finish off the cake with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts and if you can resist leave in the fridge for about 20 minutes for the frosting to firm up a little but if you're anything like me then dig straight in 

* Having your margarine soft and eggs at room temp really does help in getting a better rise out of your cake rather than using them straight from the fridge. I quite often use the defrost function on my microwave for my margarine- at 30 second bursts till its softened  

**The tray i used was actually a deep roasting tray which measured 15'' by 12'',  round tins i have are about 3'' deep and for the cupcake cases i use standard size cupcake cases not mini cupcake cases 

Chicken & mushrooms with a cracked black pepper sauce

This is one of those recipes that i literally threw together without much thought or exact measuring of ingredients - I had a rough idea of how much and what I needed, and tweaked it as i went along. 
I was rather happy with the end result as not only did it taste rather scrummy & filling, It only used 5 ingredients & took just under 30 minutes to cook.

The husband & I ate it with a side of sweet potato wedges & steamed veg.. but it's just as nice on its own as it is or maybe served with rice or even stirred into pasta.


The amount below should easily serve 2 people :

1large chicken breast 
1 large onion
2 x 180g cracked black pepper Philadelphia
2 handfuls of sliced button/chestnut mushrooms
4-5 tablespoons of milk 

• Start by cutting your chicken breast .. either into strips or 4 quarters, and leave to a side. (I did mine in strips simply because quarters would have taken a little longer and I was running behind on other jobs)
• Roughly chop the onion and cook off in a large frying pan in a little oil till softened & brown in colour. Add in the chicken and cook through till no pinkness remains in the chicken
• Add in the sliced mushrooms, and continue to cook till the chicken has browned evenly all over and the mushrooms have cooked through.
• In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese and the milk. Take the chicken off the heat and stir in the cream cheese 
• Once the sauce is incorporated & the chicken & mushrooms are coated thoroughly, put back on to a medium heat and leave to simmer. Taste at this point and season with salt if you wish too.
• Leave to simmer till the sauce has reached your desired thickness and serve*

*If the sauce becomes too thick at any point, just add in a little milk slowly stirring it through till its back to the consistency you want it at