Carrot and Pineapple Cake

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. It’s all about family and friends, and everything that should be celebrated about life. My year has been full; to be honest I really don’t know how quickly it passed by. Someone once told me that the older we get, the more we feel that. I think it’s true. For me it’s so important to stop once in a while and appreciate all the good things that come my way. My year has been like a yo-yo, like everyone else’s I guess, but still I feel thankful for the dearest people in my life. Especially those friends with whom I reconnected. You know who you are. Also a special shout-out to Sadie from Sadie’s Nest, Julie from Hostess at Heart, Anna from Life Bellissima and Sarah from Sarah’s Attic of Treasures. Four lovely ladies right there!

That brings me nicely to today’s recipe. It was passed on to me some months ago by two of my Maltese friends – Rose and Stephanie, a charming mother and daughter duo. They were kind enough to give me two cake recipes which I have tried and liked. This is my first try at making carrot cake. There’s something very comforting about carrot cake, and the inclusion of cinnamon undoubtedly evokes memories of the colder months. The taste and smell of cinnamon in particular takes me delightfully back to our years in Michigan. I will never forget those large sweet cinnamon and sugar pretzels. The recipe still eludes me!

This one doesn’t though. It’s practically foolproof and the pineapples can be easily substituted with tinned peaches. I’ve tried that and it worked very well. The original recipe had an easy frosting for covering the cake but I rarely bother with that. The cake stands strong on its own. I thought that carrot cake without frosting is not the real deal. However I am now converted. Make it for your closest friends and celebrate. You will have plenty of cake to share.

Makes 2 cakes.

• 3 cups plain flour or cake flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ cups regular olive oil or vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shelled walnuts, roughly chopped
• ½ cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 1 ½ cups shredded coconut
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup drained pineapple chunks

Grease and line two loaf tins with parchment of baking paper, and preheat the oven to 180°C.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and ground cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Next add the oil, eggs and vanilla extract, and mix well until just combined.

Tip in the walnuts, pecans, shredded coconuts, grated carrots and pineapple chunks, and fold. Avoid overmixing the cake batter.

Pour the mixture as evenly as possible into the two cake tins and bake in the middle of your oven for around 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean.

Leave the cakes to cool in their tins on a wire rack until completely cooled. The cakes will be crumbly in texture but that is exactly what you want. Remove from the tins when ready to serve.

I could do with a slice right now, together with a cup of coffee.

Rob.

(Recipe adapted from simplyrecipes.com with suggestions and tips from my friends Rose and Steph.)

**Please note that I won’t be posting any recipes next week, but come back the week after that and I’ll have some holiday stuff for you.**

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