The Perils of Citrus in November

Yesterday I went to a garden centre for a cup of tea and a piece of cake with Darren. He opted for the Bakewell tart and a nice strong americano to stave off the November chills, whilst I, foolishly, went for lemon drizzle cake. Now, no one likes a bit of the drizz more than I, and there has barely been a Saturday afternoon that I haven't sipped tea and declared, 'oh, isn't this moist?', so I can reasonably defend my strange choice for a frankly, bitingly cold day. However, my reasons for concern were two fold.

Firstly, and most pertinently, it plainly wasn't a lemon drizzle cake. There was nothing lemon about it. It was a fairly rich Madeira cake with a whisper of glacé icing atop its rather grimly baked exterior. I fear the nearest a lemon came to the poor thing was to pass it longingly en route from fridge to my plate.

Secondly, there was no spice. I seem to get to 1st October and go slightly bacchic for a hint of cinnamon. I realise there isn't any spice in a lemon drizzle cake, and so it was not, perhaps, the cake that was wrong, it was me.

This morning I spent £1 on a bag of carrots, £1.85 on a kilo of golden caster sugar and 50p on a bag of self raising flour, and started to make a carrot cake.

Thankfully, the Ma has provided me with a very easy recipe in her book (go and buy it please, it's very good) 'Good Home Baking', and so I duly measured out:

200ml vegetable/sunflower oil
350g carrots, grated
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
150g self raising flour
150g wholemeal self raising flour
2 teaspoons of mixed spice

First I put the oven on to 180 degrees C, whilst the lovely Darren (revelling in his chopping abilities) peeled, topped, tailed and grated the carrots. He weighed out 400g of whole carrots and, as this became precisely 350g of grated carrot, exclaimed 'I'm just brilliant.' I found it difficult to disagree.

The dreaded tin was lined, possibly the most annoying and boring job ever created, but necessary to get the dratted thing out. I used a square tin, roughly 20cm wide, and lined it with baking parchment, as well as greasing it with butter.

Then the eggs, oil and sugar went into a large mixing bowl, were mixed up until creamy and then joined by the neatly grated carrot. I mixed it all up and then weighed out the flour.

Both flours and spices went into the bowl, were given a mix and then poured into the tin. I put the timer on for 45 minutes and then went for a nice autumnal walk. By the time we got back it was ready. And so was I, for a cup of tea that is.

The Ma bemoaned the lack of sultanas, but I don't massively like them. She uses 3 tablespoons of them in the mix, but I took that bit to be an 'optional extra'.

I also wanted the thing iced, so used 100g cream cheese, 50g creme fraische and 250g icing sugar. You might need a bit more or less sugar depending on how loose the mixture is. It should be like stiff buttercream, but mine was rather runny and slopped over the sides. Tasted lovely though. I ate a good chunk at dusk, with the fire going and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on DVD, and a lovely pot of Empress Grey tea. Lemon Drizzle indeed.