Carrot cake with walnuts and marscapone icing

Have you ever had a craving for cake, and desperately want to give in, but talk yourself out of it because there are healthier things to eat, and all that sugar's not good for your teeth? And then there's the bother of finding the right cake pans at the back of the cupboard, and they'll likely need a wash, and you'll have to let the butter soften first, and bring the eggs to room temperature...and oh, it's all a lot of bother isn't it?

But then, if you're like me, your mind goes to carrot cake, because that's quite healthy, isn't it? I mean, it's bloody well got vegetables right inside it, so that's like eating a cake that's full of all kinds of goodness, not to mention being a boon for your eyesight. And it's chock full of walnuts too, and aren't they like cancer fighting nuts or something? I mean how could I not make this cake for the sake of my future well -being and ocular soundess!

Actually, the real impetus for making this cake is because I read about it in another food blog, written by the wife of Giles Coren. He's a well-known restaurant critic in the UK, but I like him best for his work on a show called Supersizers, which looks at cuisine in different eras of history. If you can find it on the Food Netwwork or online, I urge you to give it a look. It's really one of the cleverest shows ever, thanks to the witty banter between the two hosts. (And not to take away any credit from Coren's wife, who herself is a very good, and quite funny, writer as well.)

So the blog find spurred me into action, not only because it was cleverly written, but because I also adore Nigel Slater, the cake's creator, his writing and his recipes. This recipe is from his book Tender, which is full of mouth-watering vegetable-based treats. I think I would like for Nigel to live in my house and turn my backyard into a lovely vegetable garden like the one he cooks from year round in England. Er, I suppose that might be a bit of a challenge living in Ottawa, but he could try.

Anyway, on to the cake.....

Start by separating out three eggs.

I had to buy some sunflower oil especially for this recipe. I've never bought it before and had to seek it out at a Birkenstock-wearing-hippy-frequented-incense-smelling natural food store.

Grate your carrots and weigh them. British recipes are fun because you have to use kitchen scales and do math (okay, so the math bit's not that much fun).

Measure the walnuts too. You can see my measurements aren't exact, but I don't think a gram or two difference matters all that much.

Beat everything together until it turns this appetizing brown-ish barf colour.

And fold in the egg whites.

Place in a pan. The recipe calls for two 8-inch cake pans, but I couldnt' find/don't have any, so I made do with one 9-inch springform pan.

I ended up cutting my 9-inch cake in half to form layers, between which I spread the cream cheese/marscapone icing. This was my first time ever making cream cheese icing and I have to say it is a dangerous thing. I could eat marscapone straight from the tub. But I didn't. Well maybe just a spoonful, but that's it. I swear.

And this is the cake's top view. I omitted the orange zest from the icing, and it was still very tasty.

Overall, this cake wasn't quite as moist as I'd hoped it would be, but it is quite good. I'm sure you'll like it, especially if you're a fan of walnuts, as they make a plentiful appearance in this cake.

A carrot cake with a frosting of mascarpone and orange by Nigel Slater

For the cake

3 eggs
250g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt
200 ml sunflower oil
25og light muscovado sugar
150g carrots
juice of half a lemon
150g walnuts, roughly chopped

For the frosting

250g mascarpone cheese
200g Philadelphia
150g icing sugar
grated zest of half an orange
some whole walnut halves

1 Set the oven to 180C. Butter 2 x 22cm cake tins and line each bottom with a disc of baking parchment

2 Separate the eggs. Sift together the flour, bicarb of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

3 Beat the oil and sugar in a food mixer until well-creamed then introduce the egg yolks one by one. Grate the carrots into the mixture, add the lemon juice and walnuts and stir. At this point, the sunflower oil will float to the top of the mixture and look gross. Don't worry, this is normal.

4 Fold the flour into this mixture. I did this by hand, but Nige says do it in the mixer.

5 Beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold into the mixture with a metal spoon.

6 Divide the mixture between your tins and bake for 45 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean-ish ... because this is supposed to be quite a sticky cake, except it didn't turn out that way for me.

7 To make the frosting, beat the mascarpone, Philly and icing sugar together in a mixer until smooth and creamy. You stand a better chance of this happening if the cheeses are at room temperature when you start. Stir in the orange zest. Splash some in between your cakes to sandwich together and the rest on the top and on the sides. Decorate with walnut halves.

Eat a large slice and your optometrist will thank you.

Lentil salad

I made this salad a couple of weeks ago after being inspired by some of the recipes I found in Mark Bittmans, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. (Another Express read from the library!)

The actual recipe here is loosely based on this one, which really is more of a food memory than an actual recipe.

Start buy cooking the lentils (I used Puy) in enough water to cover. I flavoured the liquid with a smashed clove of garlic and some rosemary and thyme. You need to cook them for quite a while. I was impatient and took them off the heat early, but ideally they should simmer for at least 30 minutes, until they're mushy rather than annoyingly al dente, as mine were.

Doesn't this pot look like something out of a Harry Potter movie?

Next, prep some of the veg, which in my case, where freshly shelled new peas.

Dice and cook two pieces of bacon until crispy.

Then add in some chopped carrot to soften, along with some garlic.

Peel and chop one beet. Recipes always say to wear gloves when doing this, but I never find my hands remain stained all that long.

Whip up a little dressing, with some lemon juice, dijon mustard (I only had grainy) and a splash of red wine vinegar. I added only a splash of olive oil, since I was going to incorporate the bacon fat into the finished salad.

And here's what it looks like all assembled, topped with feta cheese. You can see here that I added in the beets (raw) and some asparagus, which I cooked. The salad is very nice warm, where the cheese melts a bit into the lentils, but also keeps very well cold and makes a great lunch.

Lentil salad

1 c. of Puy lentils
2 slices bacon, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large beet, peeled and diced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
handful of fresh or frozen peas
8-10 spears of asparagus, steamed and chopped into bite-sized pieces

For the dressing

1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1/4 c. (approx.) lemon juice and red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
splash of olive oil
*dressing is really to taste, and you may need to adjust amounts depending on how dressed you like your salad

1. Begin by cooking the lentils in enough water to cover, flavoured with herbs and garlic of your choosing.

2. Dice bacon and cook in skillet until crispy.

3. When bacon is almost cooked, add in carrot and garlic. Cook until softened.

4. When lentils are cooked and slightly mushy, drain and add to pan with bacon and carrots. Toss in other vegetables and add in dressing. Top with some crumbled feta cheese and enjoy!