I miss baking. Not that I really baked that often, but COOKIES.
I don’t have an oven here, but I do have co-workers who are happy to oblige me by letting me use theirs. So I’ve made peanut butter cookies in three different ovens. Usually me coming over to bake also includes an invitation to dinner, so after all is said and dine… these often turn out to be midnight baking adventures.
Due to the (relative) success of my cookies, I decided to follow up with something vaguely more healthy: carrot cake. I made one last night for a friend who’s leaving at the end of this week, and brought it to work. It was worth it just to see all everyone going, “You put WHAT in this cake?” Even better when people didn’t believe it had carrots in it. “What do you mean, carrot cake? This is a gingerbread cake.”
For what it’s worth, it was a delicious carrot cake, and easy to make (Carrot Cake III on allrecipes.com). A few substitutions though:
Instead of 2 cups sugar, use one cup white sugar and one cup of cassonade (light brown sugar).
Add some nutmeg (probably less than a teaspoon).
Using 3 cups of icing sugar for the frosting is sufficient.
I had to make a few substitutions (cream cheese doesn’t really exist in France… and I was too cheap to buy vanilla extract, so I used vanillin sugar) but overall there was no problem with it at all! As good as any carrot cake I’ve had at home. And I think this is the first time I’ve made a cake that turned out!
Entering the final stretch of my time here! Everything since January has really flown by. I’ll be sorry to leave.