The Great Birthday Festival, Part 20

It has been a festival of many parts and while I do exaggerate slightly in the title (not quite Part 20 yet, though I'm getting there), the celebrations have indeed been many and varied. There were lunches out and lunches in, glasses of bubbly, birthday cakes (yes, plural - who has just one birthday cake?), a birthday dinner, birthday bouquet and lots of fabulous presents. As is ever the case, some of the best gifts are handmade and I was lucky enough to receive some really thoughtful ones: a beautiful, soft grey woollen blanket, hand-knitted by No.1 Sister; a framed photo collage featuring yours truly over the years, which was put together by my Mam (it includes this photo of one-year old me, very much delighted with myself in a rather wonderful lace-trimmed hat); and a playlist of my favourite songs from the last four decades or so, painstakingly selected and burned onto CDs by No.3 Sister (in deference to my car stereo, which is stuck in the pre-digital age).

The Birthday Bouquet

As it was my birthday, I was banned from baking and was instead given the opportunity to select whatever cake I liked for my birthday (which No.1 Sister would make for me). It proved a difficult decision (so many cakes, so little time!) and made me realise how much more I like baking cakes than eating them. Or more accurately, how much I enjoy the combination of creating the cake and then sharing in the eating of it. With the prospect of baking and decorating a cake removed from the equation, however, I had to think long and hard about what it is I would like to enjoy with a cup of coffee on my birthday weekend. 

Birthday Cake No. 1

I had made a chocolate fudge cake for No.1 Sister the previous weekend for her birthday down in Kerry, so it wouldn't be that. A summer staple in our house is the simple but delicious Victoria Sponge filled with cream, jam and strawberries, but much as I love it, my Mam had already surprised me with a yummy swiss roll with cream and strawberries on my actual birthday. The meringue and lemon curd variation of the Victoria Sponge, lovely and all as it is, wasn't calling me either (one of the layers is a fabulous combination of sponge and meringue - a neat trick that looks much more impressive than it actually is, but that's a topic for another day's post). Coffee and walnut cake was a real contender and plans advanced enough that there were discussions of trying a cream cheese instead of plain butter coffee icing. Although it didn't win pride of place as my official birthday cake, it is a variant I am determined to try soon. But ultimately, the only way I could choose was to figuratively remove my baker's apron and hat and pretend I was sitting in a cafe, a cup of steaming coffee in front of me. What would I like to see on the plate in front of me? 

The Definitive Carrot Cake 

The winner, ladies and gentlemen, was the humble carrot cake. It can be found in different forms in cafes and tea-shops across the land; some of them too dry, others too dense and many too sweet and lacking in any discernible flavour. But when it's made properly and decorated as a luscious gateau, it is one of the best cakes you could ever wish to have alongside your cup of coffee (or tea, if that's your tipple). The use of oil instead of butter and the chopped nuts and grated carrots in the sponge ensure that it gets better with age (much like me, ahem). 

Birthday Cake No. 2

The cake remains beautifully moist, so you can safely make it a day or two ahead of time (ever a baking bonus). The addition of lemon and orange zest really perk up the flavours of the cinnamon, ginger and mixed spice, while lemon juice in the cream cheese frosting is the perfect counterpoint to the sweetness. At my request, No. 1 Sister used pecans instead of walnuts - for some reason, walnuts baked into a cake make me nauseous (weird but true), but by all means stick with walnuts if it makes you happy. And if I've learned nothing in my forty years thus far, it's that cake is all about what makes you happy. This is the definitive carrot cake, made to a recipe adapted by No. 1 Sister especially for me, from the 'Best Ever Carrot Cake' featured in the Good Food magazine (see her variation below).

So 10 days on from the birthday and the festivities continue a-pace, but I've taken a moment to reflect (a much needed moment - these extended festivals require some stamina!). With age comes a certain amount of wisdom, but as the saying goes, you learn something new every day. My first discovery of this decade is a modest one (no Nobel prizes here) and possibly already a well-known fact, but I thought I would share it nonetheless: a slice of delicious carrot cake goes equally well with a glass of prosecco (complete with drunken strawberry) as it does with a cup of coffee. Just so you know.
The Definitive Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
• 225g self-raising flour
• 225ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
• 4 eggs
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 1.5 tsp each ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground mixed spice
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200g carrots, coarsely grated
• 50-75g walnuts / pecans, chopped, plus a few halves to decorate

For the icing

• 400g full-fat cream cheese (at room temperature)
• 250g butter, softened
• 300g icing sugar, sifted
• Juice of 1 lemon (to taste)

Method

1. Heat oven to 170C/150C fan and grease and line the base and sides of a 20.5cm (8 inch) round cake tin with parchment paper. Whisk together the oil, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix together the flours, mixed spice, cinnamon and bicarb in your largest mixing bowl. Add the zest, grated carrot, walnuts and whisked egg mixture into the dry ingredients, then thoroughly mix with a wooden spoon. Tip into the cake tin, level and bake on the middle shelf for 1 hr 5 mins - 1 hr 15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin for 5 mins, then leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
2. To make the icing, beat together the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and lemon juice with an electric whisk until smooth. Cut the cooled cake in half horizontally through the middle. Use half the icing to sandwich the two halves together and spread the remaining icing over the top of the cake and decorate with walnut / pecan halves.