Carrot Cake

By : Rachel Allen

This elegantly simple cake doesn't need to try too hard to be absolutely delicious. It's light, heavenly with ice cream, and the hazelnuts give it an incredible texture - delicate and nutty at the same time.

Serves 12

2 eggs
140ml (5fl oz) vegetable oil
200g (7oz) soft light brown sugar
300g (11oz) grated carrot (weight when grated)
100g (31/2oz) raisins
75g (3oz) pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
180g (61/2oz) self raising flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice

For the orange cream cheese icing:
250g (9oz) cream cheese (straight from the fridge)
50g (2oz) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
275g (10oz) icing sugar, sifted
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

You will need a 13 x 23cm (5 x 9in) loaf tin

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F), Gas mark 2. Oil and line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped nuts.

3. Sift in the dry ingredients and bring the mixture together using a wooden or large metal spoon.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 1-11/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

5. Allow to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

6. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and finely grated orange zest and mix to combine. The icing should be smooth and quite thick. Using a palette knife, spread the icing evenly over the cooled cake, dipping the knife into a bowl of hot water if the icing is hard to spread out. Cut into slices to serve.

Rachel's Baking Tip:

Un-iced, this cake is also delicious sliced and buttered.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake

By: Anna Olson

Ingredients: Crust: 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 250 mL 1/3 cup ground hazelnuts 80 mL 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed 60 mL 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted 60 mL 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 mL Filling: 2 cups whipping cream 500 mL 6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped 175 g 1 lb cream cheese at room temperature 500 g 3/4 cup sugar 190 mL 1 Tbsp cornstarch 30 mL 1/2 cup hazelnut liqueur 125 mL 2 large eggs 2 cocoa powder, for dusting whole, toasted and peeled hazelnuts, for garnish

Method: For crust, preheat oven to 350 °F (180 °C) and grease a 9-inch (2.5 L) springform pan. Pulse graham crumbs, hazelnuts and brown sugar in a food processor. Add melted butter and vanilla extract and pulse until an even texture. Press into bottom of prepared pan and bake for 7 minutes. Allow to cool while preparing filling. For filling, reduce oven temperature to 325 °F (160 °C). Heat cream to just below a simmer. Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate and whisk gently until smooth and set aside. In a bowl using electric beaters or with a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese until fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl often. While beating, slowly pour in sugar, again scraping the bowl often. Beat in cornstarch. By this time the filling should be looking a little more fluid. Slowly pour in hazelnut liqueur and beat in eggs, one at a time. Pour chocolate mixture into cheesecake filling and blend well. Scrape filling into pan and bake for 30 minutes. Without opening the oven door, turn off the oven and leave cheesecake in another 30 minutes. Remove, let cool to room temperature, then chill overnight. To serve, remove cheesecake from pan, dust top of cheesecake with cocoa powder and decorate with hazelnuts. STYLIST NOTES: - no need to test - original menu included Icewine peaches (was a way for me nto integrate excursion), but PE said nope to Icewine, and I don’t think we need it anyways.

White Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

170 gm. shortening
110 gm. icing sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
200 gm. plain flour
80 gm. cornflour
100 gm. toasted almond flakes
a little cornoil if dough is too dry


Method:

(1) Cream shortening with icing sugar till creamy.
(2) Add in plain flour, cornflour then the roasted almond flakes.
(3) Slowly pour in cornoil to form into a dough.
(4) Chill in the fridge for 30 mins. then roll into 1 cm thick, use a round cutter to cut into rounds.
(5) Bake at 170C for about 25 mins. till cooked and lightly brown.
(6) Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack before storing in cookie containers.

Banana Butterscotch Muffins

By Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

• 3 very ripe bananas
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 250g flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 150g butterscotch (or chocolate) morsels

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 and line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin papers.
2. Mash the bananas and set aside for a moment.
3. Pour the oil into a jug and beat in the eggs.
4. Put the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in the beaten-egg-and-oil mixture, followed by the mashed bananas.
5. Fold in the butterscotch morsels, then place equal quantities in the prepared muffin tin - I use an ice cream scoop and a spatula - and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Serves: Makes 12

Vanilla Shortbread

By Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

• 100g icing sugar
• 200g plain flour, preferably Italian 00
• 100g cornflour
• 200g very soft unsalted butter
• Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
• Vanilla or ordinary caster sugar for sprinkling
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Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3.
2. Put the icing sugar, plain flour and cornflour into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the double-bladed knife and give them a quick blitz (just to save you sieving, which is my most-hated job in the kitchen) before adding the butter along with the vanilla seeds you've scraped out of a pod. (I find the easiest way to do this is by cutting the pod in half across, and then splitting each short half lengthwise and prising out the seeds with the point and edge of a sharp knife. Don't even think of throwing the deseeded bits of pod away: stash them in a jar of caster to use next time a recipe requires vanilla sugar.)
3. Process again until the soft mixture coheres and begins to form a ball, loosely clumping around the blade. Turn this out on to a Swiss roll tin and press to form an even (or as even as you can make it) layer, using fingers or the back of a spoon, or both. Be patient: I promise you it will fit smoothly.
4. Using the tip of a sharp knife cut the pressed-out shortbread into fingers. I make two incisions lengthways - ie to form three layers - and then make ten cuts down - so that you end up with eleven fingers per layer. Obviously, the aim should be to cut at regular intervals but don't start getting your ruler out. Just go by eye: uniformity is the province of the conveyer belt not of home cooking. Use the tines of a fork to make little holes in each marked-out biscuit: I press down about three times, diagonally, on each finger.
5. Now that you've pressed, incised, and punctured, slide the Swiss roll tin into the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes, by which time the shortbread will be pale still, but not doughy. Expect a little goldenness around the edges, but shortbread should be not crisp but melting. Remove the tin from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes or so, before removing, with a palette knife and your fingers, to a wire rack. Sprinkle with sugar and leave them to cool completely before storing in a tin.

Serves: Makes 33 fingers.