Apr 21

Apr 21 Exmoor Lockdown Diary 34 - Let Them Eat Cake

It’s all very well saying: let them eat cake - but first you need a cake with which to feed people…

And I have never made a cake in my life - until now. Strange, the things you get to do in a lockdown.

So now I have made my first ever cake - and it is absolutely delicious - though I says so meself. Yes, I know it doesn’t look much, but this carrot-cake is as moist and altogether swallowable as anything I’ve ever made.

Some people won’t believe this - but I made it in my electronic pressure cooker. You can find lots of recipes for carrot cake made in an Instant Pot - and the simple reason for that is because they are brilliant things.

Don’t worry, this isn’t an advert. We don’t have any commercial inclusions on this website - which is why I’m so broke. But who needs loads of dosh when you’ve got a few ropey old carrots that need using up, a couple of fresh eggs from up the road, some flour and a bit of sugar alongside a few spices.

I also used a lot of fresh ginger in my cake, which I very finely grated with a microplane - then all I did was put the mix in a spring-clip cake tin, put it down onto a trivet above a cupful of water in the Instant Pot, then the whole lot was steamed (not under pressure but with the lid on) for a couple of hours. Then I made a loose icing with the juice of one lemon in some icing sugar along with finely grated peel. This addition turned my construction into a kind of lemon drizzle carrot cake. And I really do love it very much.

Now I’m off to the kitchen to finish making this week’s batch of sourdough bread. That miracle had got a whole lot better since my neighbour Sean Hardman gave me some advice and I’ve cut out half the fiddly stuff I used to do. As is so often the case, keeping things simple works far better than trying to be clever. So thanks Sean for that…

I’ll put up some photos of my sourdough tomorrow - which will probably be the kiss of death for this evening’s baking…