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Weekends are time for the 3 R’s: relaxing, recovering and re-stocking. And even after the Valentine’s cakes, plus the cake from mum last weekend the cake tin was looking a bit bare so my thoughts turned to sweet things! I love carrot cake and saw a recipe the other day for beetroot muffins so I raided my veg bag and starting from these two unprepossessing characters I came up with:

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Sweet roots fairy cakes
(Makes about 15)

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C/160 deg C Fan, or Gas Mark 4

Put 15 fairy cake cases into cake trays (if you don’t have cake trays you can just stand the cake cases on a baking tray, but in that case put 3 of them one inside the other so they are strong enough to stand up on their own)

175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground mixed spice
200g light soft brown sugar
150ml sunflower oil
2 large eggs
180 g grated carrot and beetroot
75g chopped walnuts or sultanas or a mixture


Sift the flour into a bowl with the baking powder and add the mixed spice.

Now in a big bowl mix the sugar with the oil, then add the eggs and beat in until the mixture is smooth. Then add the grated veg and the walnuts and/or sultanas. Finally gently fold the flour, baking powder and ground mixed spice.

Spoon into the cake cases and cook for about 20 minutes until they look done, or a skewer put into one of the cakes comes out clean.


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Leave to cool in the tray for 15 minutes, then remove the cakes from the tray and leave to cool completely on a rack.


You can either eat them as they are or, for a really indulgent treat, make some frosting. Soften 100g of butter (don’t tell anyone, but I put it in the microwave for 10s), gradually beat in 225g of icing sugar, then add 35ml of lemon or orange juice. Beat until light and creamy then get creative!





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