Half baked

I love a good cake as well as the next person - but I've never been much good at actually baking them.  Maybe the occasional Victoria Sponge or some ginger cookies, and then those cheat-add-an-egg muffin packets which can be really successful!

My whole family have recently become addicted to a television series running in the UK called "The Great British Bake-Off"  - a disarmingly simple program, show casing ordinary people as contestants who bake, invent and create baked fancies from around the globe and occasionally have un-cooked, collapsed and soggy distastrous results - each week one baker gets sent home.  I can tell - you're on the edge of your seats right now.  (There has been one series of "The Great American Bake Off" which followed a similar format but I'm not sure it took, so I don't think there will be another series).

Every episode, as we sit on the sofa salivating, one member of my family declares "well, it can't be that difficult" or "Gawd, I looooove those, we should make some".  Unfortunately, no-one can rely on me for hand-me-down family recipes or secret ingredients, so we make do with several books from the cupboard and attempt something grand.  And if you're familiar with Delia Smith - well, she is the Goddess of the Kitchen - the simplest and most successful to date has been a banana loaf (the recipe calls for walnuts, but let's be serious here - chocolate chips work so much better).

And last week, we went back to basics and purchased a new book.  What a success.

Yesterday we chose to make Carrot Cake.  I love Carrot Cake and yet am ashamed to say I have never attempted to make one in my life. It's easy!

Would it be too boastful to declare that the end product of yesterday was just about THE BEST Carrot Cake in the land?

And would it be wrong to only eat Carrot Cake all day long?

Yum.  I think we're attempting profiteroles next weekend!