Thursday, March 7, 2013

Carrot Cake

Who likes carrots? Who has a bunch of carrots sitting in a bag at the back of their refrigerator?
When it's night time in Paris and it's drizzling outside and you have nothing better to do, why not bake a super moist carrot cake and then decorate it with pretty sprinkles?! 
It may not be the prettiest of cakes but it sure tastes delicious and  with that whipped cream-like mascarpone frosting on top there is nothing that can go wrong...unless of course
you finish it in the blink of an eye and then you are left staring at an empty plate.
Check out my collaboration blog edible-beauty.tumblr.com where I post cooking videos, tips and fun food facts


- - - - - -RECIPE- - - - - -
Ingredients
      Cake
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 carrots, grated
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional
      Frosting
2 cups or 500g mascarpone
1/2 confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ready, set, BAKE!
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10x12 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the grated carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3.Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To make frosting: In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, beat the mascarpone until smooth. Add all the confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract, beat until all is incorporated and smooth. You can add 1/4 cup more of confectioner's sugar if the frosting is not sweet enough for you. Enjoy :)
adapted from Allrecipes 


American bakery in Paris

So, yesterday my friend and I went to this really cute American bakery in Paris and I have to say it was quite good. The guy who served us was really funny and nice. Oh, and did I mention that the bakery was jam packed with Americans, yes filled with I would say 20 Americans; it was like a little American party.

I ordered a banana muffin
The best parts of the muffin were the bites that had slices of banana mmm... There was one perfect bite that I took and that was the piece that had a slice of banana and a few lightly toasted walnuts. 
Unfortunately, the bites that didn't have those slices of banana tasted a bit too plain for my liking and were also a tad bit dry. Overall I thought it was a good muffin, but it was definitely overpriced, 3.50€ a muffin no thank you. 

My friend got a rice crispy treat that was not marshmallow-y enough. Can I say that? Basically, it definitely lacked the gooyness of the marshmallows. Definitely not comparable to homemade rice crispy treats.

And look at what these cheeky Americans wrote
(Get it? Frostitute instead of prostitute)