Carrot Salad

 

OK this is not a cake or bake but it is sweet and good for you, plus with all the warm weather making a selection of salads to share with some tasty breads makes a perfect light lunch or diner.

• 8 large carrots, peeled
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 finely sliced spring onions (scallions)
• 2 - 3 teaspoons English mustard
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice (or lemon if you can not get a lime)
• The grated zest from1 unwaxed lime (or lemon)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons honey, to taste(depending on how sweet the carrots are)
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seed oil 
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds  

Grate the carrots into ribbons or long strips into a large bowl (you can use a peeler for this) and add the sliced spring onions and chopped parsley.
In a small bowl mix the mustard, lime, oils, honey, vinegar and salt mix well, taste to see if it needs more honey or mustard.
Add the oil mix to the carrots and mix making sure the carrots are evenly coated in the oil/ mustard mixture.
Leave for a couple of hours for all the flavours to combine, you may find the carrots shrink that is OK.
Serve in a large bowl or small individual bowls sprinkle the sesame seeds on top and lightly mix in just before serving.

Experiment adding different herbs, mustards and oils

Focaccia Bread

So following on from the Victoria sandwich last week, I made a focaccia bread using a recipe from Paul Hollywood as this week is the the Great British Bake Off's bread week. I used some crushed rock salt instead of sea salt (I think it tastes more salty) and sprinkled on lots of dried rosemary.

The Great British Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off is back on TV (its the second week already), its moved from BBC 2 to BBC 1, I nearly missed it! (it is also available to watch on the BBC player)
So I decided to make some cake to eat while watching it, this Victoria sandwich recipe is from the wonderful Mary Berry's website. OK I halved the recipe and made one cake round and chopped it in half as there were only 2 of to eat it. I also added a little vanilla paste to the cake mix and made a vanilla buttercream instead of what looks like fresh cream (its missing from the recipe but the photo looks like it has whipped cream. So here's the photo of my cake and very tasty it was :)
Next week is bread week so I am planning to make Paul Hollywoods focaccia bread recipe