The great cake challenge continues

Seen as my last cake from the Hummingbird book was so delicious I thought I would try another. This time it was the turn of the carrot cake. I have my own (well my mums) delicious carrot cake recipe but I wanted to see how the Hummingbird version measured up. My mums carrot cake has always been a firm family favourite so this had a lot to live up to. We were going to Wales for the weekend with the In laws so it was the perfect opportunity to trial the new recipe. So the night before our travels I began baking. The recipe was similar to my usual but didn't seem to have as much carrot in or as many sultanas. Nothing wrong with this but I do like carrot! I have to say although the cake was nice it was nowhere near as nice as my mums recipe so this is definately a case of sticking with what you know. It was tasty and I happily munched through a few pieces but it was quite a bit heavier than my mums recipe and the cream cheese frosting was much sweeter which made it quite sickly.
I also combined the new recipe with some new decorations. Some lovely carrots!! Fun fun fun and they looked so sweet on the cake. They were really easy to do. Roll some orange sugar paste in to a fat cone and then score lines across with a knife. Then I cut thin strips from rolled green sugar paste and curled them as the roots. They were chubby little carrots but I liked them very much!
So the verdict was cake was tasty but not as good as my usual but the carrots were a triumph!

The great cake challenge

The great cake challenge has officially begun! I was set the challenge by my lovely husband Edd and consists of well, baking! Every week (or as often as possible) I am to trial a new recipe or a new and interesting cake decoration. Like many of you I have my tried and tested cake recipes that never fail and so have little need to change. However, despite their deliciousness it's time to try the new, if only for the excuse of eating cake! The first challenge cake was a Hummingbird cake from the fantastical Hummingbird Bakery Cook Book (my favourite!). Yum Yum is all I can say! The Hummingbird Cake is similar to a carrot cake in consistency but instead of carrot it is packed with pineapple, bananas and pecan nuts. It really is a fantastic combination. And to make it even better the whole thing is sandwiched and covered with a delicious cream cheese frosting. It was even a triple layered cake so had even more yummy frosting. It works really well as a nice desert style cake and was definately a favourite with my family. I have to say I am definately converted on this one and it is certainly a new cake that I will be adding to my staple recipes!
Apologies about the lack of photo. I appear to have just deleted it from my camera! I will just have to bake it again instead!