A Happy Discovery

I made a discovery at work, recently, and completely by accident. I was in need of some basic sunflower oil for cooking, and I was drawn to a lovely looking bottle by a Canadian company called Maison Orphee. Once I got it home and opened it, I was delighted to find it had a beautiful sunflower seed aroma. Bear in mind that I have used a lot of sunflower oils in my day and I have never had one that was fragrant like that. Of course I tasted it, and it also has a lovely strong sunflower taste. What a perfect oil for salads or vegetables! Needless to say, I have been using it ever since. I made some cinnamon buns with it and while the dough was deliciously scented with sunflower as it rose, the scent and taste were not noticeable once the buns were baked, perhaps because of the overriding cinnamon flavour.


The other night I decided to make a carrot cake. I gathered a lovely bunch of organic carrots and set some cream cheese out to soften, and opened my precious bottle of sunflower oil.

I was happy to discover that there is a subtle nutty sunflower flavour in the finished cake. I left out any walnuts or pineapple or icky raisins or anything else people dump into carrot cake, so the texture is relatively smooth and the flavour really comes through. Even better is a big thick slice with cream cheese icing and a scattering of fresh raw walnuts on top. Bliss.

Oh Baby

This week, I had an epiphany. I was talking with my coworkers about these cupcakes that my mom used to make -- they were chocolate cupcakes with a delectable cream cheese filling. Someone mentioned carrot cake and the next thing I knew: light bulb. Why not make a carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese hidden inside? And why not use a baby-food-carrot cake recipe, so it will be a lovely smooth texture? Funny thing: last time I made a carrot cake with baby food, I wanted to keep the texture, so I added some shredded carrot. This time I am all about the smooth velvety cake, so I didn't.


Basically I bastardized one baby-food-carrot-cake recipe and one cream-cheese-filled-cupcake recipe into one glorious mutation of the two. Yum.

Oh Baby Cupcakes

Carrot Cake batter:
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup sunflower oil
3 4oz jars carrot baby food

Filling:
8oz brick cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar

Ok, so you make the batter and the filling (surely you don't need instruction on that) and put about a tablespoon of batter into your cupcake cup, followed by a nice dollop (a teaspoon or so) of filling and then another tablespoon of batter to cover it up. Bake those little lovelies at 350 degrees for 15-20 min (until the top is no longer moist and looks cooked) and then let them cool. They are spectacular out of the fridge and will freeze well, too. This recipe is enough for about 24 cupcakes (with a bit of batter and filling left over for you to enjoy -- don't pretend like you won't) so you can take some to your coworkers and make them ooh and ahh.


What's that? Knitting? Oh yes, I've been doing some of that, too. I have gotten started on the second sock in both pairs that I am plugging away on, and even finished all the pieces of my cardi. There they are, blocked and waiting patiently for me to seam them together and knit the buttonbands. I even found the perfect buttons. Stay tuned.

Carrot Cake, Baby

When I brought home a jar of baby food, it elicited a raised eyebrow from my HLM. Nothing to fear, it was only because the current issue of Cook's Country magazine has a recipe for carrot cake that uses strained carrots in place of some of the oil, to make it a bit healthier, but retain the desired light and cakey texture and carrot flavour. I looked up a few other similar carrot cake recipes online, but was dismayed to see that most of them use the carrot baby food to eliminate using any shredded carrot. While I will admit that grating carrots is the most tedious part of making a carrot cake, I really hate to think of giving up that textural aspect of the cake.

This afternoon I threw this little baby together,
and it's totally living up to expectations: light and carroty and spicy... I made my usual cream cheese icing (from the Company's Coming Cakes book) because the one from Cook's Country uses marshmallow cream, and that's not exactly something I keep around the house. (Huge blocks of cream cheese, on the other hand...)

In the meantime, I have been making slow and steady progress both on the quilt and on the shawl (Clapotis is being saved for Pub Knitting, at the moment.)
I am into the fourth chart of the shawl -- it's hard to estimate a percentage complete on this one, not only because it is growing in a triangle shape, but also because the ruffle will have a disproportionate number of stitches compared to the shawl. Suffice to say that I have used maybe half of a 500 yard ball of yarn, and the pattern calls for nearly 2000 yards. Fortunately I am enjoying it a lot -- it's reminding me of all the other lace projects I have in my queue.