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Carrot cake crisis
Sep. 17th, 2005 08:44 pmI had not really appreciated, when I signed up for a weekly box of organic vegetables, how much it would shape my cooking. On the whole, this is good: I don't enjoy wandering round shops trying to decide what to buy, and I do enjoy the challenge of making interesting meals out of what there is in the house.
Tonight we had meltdown. There are almost always carrots in the box, so I'd had time to think about carrots, and I'd decided to make carrot cake (some for dessert, and some left over for tomorrow's picnic).
The recipe said "Mix the caster sugar and honey with the sunflower oil, then beat in the eggs". It didn't say "the sugar and honey will not mix with the oil; they will form a strange, toffee-ish mass that lurks in the bowlful of oil" - but that's what happened. The entire preparation was supposed to take 15 minutes - I took that with a pinch of salt, because recipes lie to you about this, and they don't allow time for finding things, or washing up, or peeling the carrots. But I was beating this strange, granular, elastic mass for 15 minutes before it was even close to mixed (I was using fructose - and a smaller quantity - not caster sugar, because I do, but if that made the difference, it's the first time it's ever done this to me).
At the end of this time, either the beater had splashed most of the oil out of the bowl or the mix was as coherent as it was going to get. Either way, I thought "that isn't going to get any better, either I add the eggs now, or I throw it away." Since eggs, too, are things that arrive in the box faster than I can use them, I added an egg - and the mixture became instantly smoother, no more curdled than my average Victoria sponge (though wetter). The other two eggs produced a thick, golden, rather gritty mix like liquid marzipan. And from there on in, we were fine. I baked the cakes, I thought of something to cook for dinner that wouldn't take as long as the stuffed courgettes (from the box: they look like yellow eggs, or possibly lemons), I attempted to wash to oil from my hands and my kitchen, I put a bottle of wine in the fridge...
The cake is fine, if a little on the sweet side. The cardamom is a good addition. But if it's supposed to do that, why wasn't I warned? Joscelyn Dimbleby (it is one of her recipes - as the cardamom will tell anyone who is familiar with her work) has not let me down before. Julian Barnes has written a whole book about how recipes can't be trusted, but I thought I was wise to their sneaky little ways. Overconfident, clearly...
Tonight we had meltdown. There are almost always carrots in the box, so I'd had time to think about carrots, and I'd decided to make carrot cake (some for dessert, and some left over for tomorrow's picnic).
The recipe said "Mix the caster sugar and honey with the sunflower oil, then beat in the eggs". It didn't say "the sugar and honey will not mix with the oil; they will form a strange, toffee-ish mass that lurks in the bowlful of oil" - but that's what happened. The entire preparation was supposed to take 15 minutes - I took that with a pinch of salt, because recipes lie to you about this, and they don't allow time for finding things, or washing up, or peeling the carrots. But I was beating this strange, granular, elastic mass for 15 minutes before it was even close to mixed (I was using fructose - and a smaller quantity - not caster sugar, because I do, but if that made the difference, it's the first time it's ever done this to me).
At the end of this time, either the beater had splashed most of the oil out of the bowl or the mix was as coherent as it was going to get. Either way, I thought "that isn't going to get any better, either I add the eggs now, or I throw it away." Since eggs, too, are things that arrive in the box faster than I can use them, I added an egg - and the mixture became instantly smoother, no more curdled than my average Victoria sponge (though wetter). The other two eggs produced a thick, golden, rather gritty mix like liquid marzipan. And from there on in, we were fine. I baked the cakes, I thought of something to cook for dinner that wouldn't take as long as the stuffed courgettes (from the box: they look like yellow eggs, or possibly lemons), I attempted to wash to oil from my hands and my kitchen, I put a bottle of wine in the fridge...
The cake is fine, if a little on the sweet side. The cardamom is a good addition. But if it's supposed to do that, why wasn't I warned? Joscelyn Dimbleby (it is one of her recipes - as the cardamom will tell anyone who is familiar with her work) has not let me down before. Julian Barnes has written a whole book about how recipes can't be trusted, but I thought I was wise to their sneaky little ways. Overconfident, clearly...
