Spicy carrot cake with lemon icing

This is perfect for one of those dark autumn afternoons in front of the fire. It's sweet, sticky, spicy and gooey.

225g grated carrots
6 tbsp olive oil
125g soft brown sugar, preferably rapadura
225g wholemeal flour
2-3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp powdered cinnamon
2 to 3 tbsp honey
4 tbsp fresh orange juice

For the icing:
175g icing sugar
Juice and rind of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3 and line an 18cm cake tin with non-stick paper. Mix the carrots, oil and sugar in a bowl, then add the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey and orange juice, and mix until everything is well combined - it will be quite sticky.
Spoon into the prepared tin, level the top, and bake for an hour and a quarter or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (cover the top of the cake with foil if there are signs of burning). Leave to cool in the tin.
Mix the icing sugar with the lemon rind and enough of the juice (about six to eight teaspoons) to make a thick coating consistency. Spread over the top of the cake and leave to set.

Clementine & Almond Syrup Cake

I was going to include a photo, but the cake didn't last that long!

Clementine & Almond Syrup Cake

This cake has a great, light texture and will keep, covered, for at least a week. You'll find, though, that you'll go back to it every few hours for "just another sliver".

200g unsalted butter
380g caster sugar
4 clementines, zest grated, and juiced
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
280g ground almonds
5 medium free-range eggs, beaten
100g plain flour, sifted
1/8 tsp salt
Orange zest, cut in strips, to garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3. Lightly grease a 24cm spring-form tin, and line the sides and base with baking parchment.

Put the butter, 300g of the sugar (the remaining 80g is for the syrup) and citrus zest in a large bowl, and use a wooden spoon and/or spatula to combine. Do not work the mix too much or incorporate much air. Add half the ground almonds and continue mixing to fold through. Add the eggs gradually, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as you go. Add the remaining almonds, flour and salt, and work until the mix is smooth.

Spread the cake batter inside the tin and level with a palette knife. Bake for 50-60 minutes - a skewer should come out a little bit moist.

When the cake is almost cooked, in a small pan bring to the boil 80g of caster sugar and up to 120ml of the citrus juices, then remove from the heat at once. The moment the cake comes out of the oven, brush it all over with the hot syrup, making sure it all soaks through. Leave to cool down.
Serve it as it is, (or garnished with orange strips optional), store in an airtight container.

Mellow

The weather continues to be dank and grey. What happened to the "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness"?
I had a few days coming to terms with this yearly transition, triggered by the switch from British Summer Time to GMT. Like many others I whinged about the impending darker evenings, but luxuriated in the extra hour in bed on the Sunday morning.
However, I've now adjusted. I revel in drawing the curtains in the afternoon, the house is cosy, I'm cooking "hearty" food, having cake for tea at 4pm and my normally selective brain is insisting I "veg" in front of cr*p TV.

The mellowness continues as I dig out some of my favourite music.....