I made two very nice cakes today….

If you like to cook and enjoy Caribbean food then Levi Roots Reggae Reggae Cook Book is a must to buy.  Its like a little food bible in our house.  The Jerk sauce is amazing and the ginger cake puts those oblong McVities cakes to shame!  Today I tried the coconut cake and Levi has not failed me yet again, its delicious.

Coconut Cake ala Levi Roots

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder

175 g butter, cut into cubes

175 g golden cater sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

50 g sweetened tenderised coconut or desiccated coconut

Finely grated zest and juice of 2 limes

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC and line a loaf tin with the non-stick baking parchment.

Put the flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, coconut and lime zest and juice into a large bowl and mix together with an electric whisk. Start off slowly, and then gradually increase the speed. If you haven’t got a mixer, put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.

Pour the mixture into a prepared tin and bake for 45-55 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 1o minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

The second cake I made was a Carrot Cake because I love them.

Carrot Cake with cream frosting

Ingredients

1 cup castor sugar

1 cup plain flour

1 and ½ cups grated carrots

2 eggs

½ cup oil – rapeseed/veg/sunflower/olive

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/GM4.

Grease and line a loaf tin.

Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well – I used my Kenwood.

Pour mixture into cake tin.

Bake for approximately 45/1hr minutes until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from oven and allow to cool.

Turn cake onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely before icing.

Carrot Cake Frosting

Mix 30g of spread/soft butter with the same quantity if cream cheese, you may add some lemon or orange juice with  about a tbsp of icing sugar.

Spread over cake.