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Carrot Cake….at Lands End, Victoria Bay

Before i tell you more about this delicious Carrot Cake, i first need to tell you a little bit more about THE PLACE, no better setting to showcase this Carrot Cake than Lands End, Victoria Bay….

A perfect setting for a long weekend or beach holiday.

Lands End, situated in the seaside hamlet of Victoria Bay. The last house of about 12, tugged into the bay, on the Garden Route coastline. Lands End, a mere 10 minutes drive to the closest shops, but it is so secluded that it feels like a little piece of paradise with the ocean a mere 3 meteres away from your front stoep.

Lands End Victoria Bay

Memories….

We booked the two bottom units of the house, Point View and Bay view, Point View with two bedrooms sleeps four and Bay View with only one bedroom with a pull out couch for small children. Both units with their own kitchen but if you book them together it forms a lovely single unit with a large front stoep, and this is where you will spend your days, on the stoep. The front stoep is very well protected and even if it’s raining you can still sit there and just breathe in the view and amasing scenery.

Lands Stoep


The two main bedrooms are so close to the water, literally 3 meters. It is the last house, so it’s situated right on the point of the bay, in the morning the voices of the surfers, sitting on their boards, waiting to catch a wave wakes you up, this is really a gem of a weekend getaway spot.

There is a small swimming beach, which is about 2 minutes walk back towards the entrance of the bay, and a lovely tidal pool for the smaller children.

Swimming Beach…

I’ve decided to bake Belinda’s Carrot Cake for our Lands End weekend, as you can make it up to two days in advance, keep it in a airtight container till needed and ice at your destination.

Make the Carrot Cake as follows:

1: Mix together : 2 cups of sugar , 4 eggs and 1 and a half cup of canola oil.

2: Sift together and mix with sugar mixture: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp bicarb of soda,
1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt.

3: Mix together and add to the above: 3 cups grated carrots, 3/4 cup grated coconut, 1 cup chopped pecan or wallnuts, 1 cup crained crushed pineapple (don’t drain too much).

Bake in a 30cm springform pan at 180 degrees for 45 – 55 minutes or untill a skewer comes out clean.

I’ve used a large ringpan. Make sure you butter the pan very well, and let the cake stand for at least 15 minutes after baking before you turn it out.

Carrot Cake

For the Cream cheese icing you will need:

125 ml butter
500 g sifted icing sugar
250 g cream cheese

Cream the butter and gradually add the icing sugar. Add vanilla, followed by the cream cheese. Don’t beat too much as the cream cheese will become watery.

I always have a little bit of extra icing sugar on hand, add if the cream cheese icing is a bit soft….

Lands End Carrot Cake on the stoep, watching the surfers…

Serve thick slices of Carrot Cake with copious amounts of warm tea……

If more friends come to visit, tuggg in…

And tomorrow, if more friends come to visit, they will tuck in as well…

And before you go home, take a brisk walk along the old railway tracks towards Wilderness…

Lands End, a great place to visit, take some friends with and spend your days on the stoep having Carrot Cake and warm tea….

WE WILL GO BACK TO LANDS END….

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Warm Apple Cake with Butterscotch sauce…

Comfort food at it’s best, Warm Apple Cake with Butterscotch sauce made with fresh yummy sour Granny Smith apples straight from the packhouse on the farm…. As seasonal as you can get…

Stormy winter weather on the farm…

The Cape of Storms, a mere flip over the hill… today we’ve experienced it’s fury, while the family was sitting snug and cozy in front of the fire, i was cooking away in the kitchen..

Today’s Apple Cake is made with Granny Smith apples, grown and packed here on the farm…

Granny Smith apples, packed and ready for the Markets…



For the cake you will need:
190g cake flour
200g castor sugar
10 ml baking powder
2 eggs
45ml melted butter
125ml milk
4 Granny Smith apples, cored and peeled, cut into 8 segments per apple
30g butter for frying the apples..

Method: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, grease a 6 hole large muffin pan or one large 20cm cake tin. I prefer to use the large muffin pan. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then slowly mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, except the apples, don’t overmix, use a wooden spoon…

Saute the apples with 30g of butter over a low heat until golden in colour, this will take a while but adds so much flavour to the final taste.

Fill the bottom of the tin with the caramelised apples, one nice thick layer. Pour the cake mixture over the apples, fill about three quarters full…

Bake for 30 minutes if using the muffin tin and 45 minutes for a larger cake tin.

Make the sauce while the cake bakes, you will need:

125g butter
250ml milk
200g castor sugar

To make the sauce, simmer together the butter, milk and castor sugar for about 15 minutes or until thickened.

Pour one tablespoon of the warm sauce over each muffin size apple cake as soon as the cake comes out of the oven, and let it rest for about 10 minutes before your turn them out.

Serve with the rest of the warm sauce… and enjoy with a cup af bitter tea… bitter, as the apple cake is sweeeeeeet…..

I LOVE stormy winter weather….

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Burgers with a twist…

When starting this blog, I knew this will be one of the recipes that i need to post… It is a combination of a “meatball” recipe from Ilse and a Hamburger with a bit of a twist that I’ve ordered years ago in Greyton…..

For the Hamburger Patties you will need:

+/- 800 g of extra lean mince
1 packet of brown onion soup mixture
1 small tub of plain or bulgarian yoghurt
and one egg
15 ml of meat marinade per pattie (I use lappies sauce available at Spar)

Mix all the ingredients together except the marinade, and form round slightly smaller than tennisball size balls, pressed slightly down to form nice thick patties, bake the patties in the oven on 180 degrees, these homemade patties are not as firmly shaped and tends to break easily, therefore much better to cook them in the oven. Once shaped put +/- 3 teaspoons of the marinade over each pattie to give it a nice brown colour. I bake the patties untill cooked on one side and only turn them once carefully, brush with another spoon of Lappies sauce once turned.

While the patties are cooking make the topping:

Cut one thick slice of tomato per pattie.
Slice mozzarella cheese in thick slices, about 2 per pattie.
Onion Marmalade – (i use the Woolworths one – nice and sweet and not like a marmalade at all, more like an onion jam)

Once cooked, take the patties out of the oven and place them on top of the roll on a oven tray, top with one thick slice of fresh tomato and about 2 slices of mozzarella cheese.

Put the tray with bottom halves and topped patties back in the oven for about 2 minutes untill the cheese is just melted.

Remove from the oven as soon as the cheese is melted and top with about 5 ml of onion marmalade.

PLEASE don’t make these burgers without the Onion Marmalade, it is a MUST, you will get a taste sensation which will surprise you biting into these ……, the soft roll, the salty soft pattie, the fresh tomato, the just melted cheese and then, the sweet onion marmalade, it just cannot get better than this…

Serve with chips or wedges on pretty wooden plates, pretty pretty…

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August Magnolia…

During the year when i open my back door, I think, WHAT AN UGLY TREE, then once a year i think, WHAT A VERY PRETTY TREE, I love my Magnolia tree, i am not really a “tree hugger” but i like my Magnolia….

The rain damaged the flowers this year and it is not in “abundance” as last season, I wish i listened to what Mr Downes always told me about the Magnolia Tree in Roger’s garden in front of my office window, now I just cannot recall it, and every year when the Magnolia was in full bloom he would say: “the timing of the magnolia in full bloom means………….” , i need to phone him and ask i think…….

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Melon, Parma Ham and sweet balsamic sauce

Summer Picknicks at the dam, or snazzy party snacks….. these parma ham and melon parcels just works, time after time, such a pity the melon is seasonal, but papaya works as well as long as it is sweet and firm…

You will need:
One Melon, cut into small size slices
Thinly sliced parma ham, enough to have wrap around the melon
125ml white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup chopped mint

Make the sauce in advance by cooking the balsamic vinegar and castor sugar for about 10 minutes, until it’s thickened.
Let the sauce cool and place in a jar or container, ready to travel to your picknick destination. The sauce needs to cool down.

Cut the melon and wrap the parma ham around it, keep in fridge until needed, even better if you cut the melon in advance and wrap the parma ham while plating at your destination.

At the picknick spot, whip out your white platter, i always take my white platter with me, visual visual visual…. wrap the parma ham around the melon, sprinkle mint over and drizzle with sauce.

The sauce is a real winner, you won’t be able to keep your fingers off the platter….

Picknick at the dam…

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Harvest Dinner with an Olympic twist…

Elgin Orchards, where I’ve worked and lived for the last 16 years.

Elgin Orchards, a farm in the beautifull Elgin / Grabouw Valley in the Western Cape of South Africa, the farm produce Apples, Pears, Kiwis, Wine Grapes and pack apples, pears and Kiwi’s for various local and international markets.

Once a year, after the harvest and main packing season we celebrate the Harvest with our Annual Harvest Dinner, the guests usually includes core staff members, contract growers and consultants. This year the Harvest Dinner had an Olympic twist, as it was held during the 2012 Olympics, we’ve even switched on the “big screen” and cheered for our swimmers halfway through the dinner.

This year the 2012 Harvest Dinner was held at Bodemloos Kombuis, a super stunning small and personal function venue, where NOTHING is impossible…. thanks to Maryke.

I LOVE the fact that a “work related” function can bring me such joy….

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Decadent Caramel yumminess….

Ingredients:
250g margarine
1 tin caramel condencemilk
500g icing sugar
2 t instant coffee mixed with 2 t boiling water
1 t vanilla
2 packets crushed Marie biscuits.

Melt margarine and caramel, don’t boil. Add sifted icing sugar and mix.
Add coffee and vanilla and crushed Marie biscuits, don’t crush it too fine…..

Spread in flat tin, +/- 30 x 15 cm but any baking tin you can cut in.
Cut in SMALL blocks, 2 x 2 cm and place in fridge for 2 hrs till set.

Once set lift out with spatula and store in fridge.