Charot Cake

In Pinoy street lingo, "charot" means flirty. I bought some carrots last week at the street market thinking I could make something healthy within the week, but you know what they say about the road to hell. We were asked out to dinner and lunch plenty of times this week so I needed to think of something to do with the fruits and vegetables I hoarded before they start to rot. The eggplant was turned into a gratin with some bread crumbs that were dangling perilously close to the expiration date; the tomatoes were chucked into a bowl of romaine with bell peppers, chicken, parsley, grapes, mango cubes, oranges and wine vinegar, while the remaining tomatoes will be tossed in with some fresh mozzarella and basil (by tomorrow or else!) for a traditional salad; extra mangoes will be transformed into jam while some will end up on a pizza I'm making tomorrow and the overripe bananas will find a new lease in life as cake as soon as I buy more eggs. Meanwhile, the carrots were enjoyed for three nights straight after I transformed them into a moist cake. The first night we shared it with a friend who came over to play video games, the second day I had it for breakfast, and today H was dead set on eating the strawberries before they got soft so I let loose the whipped cream and set our diet back 2 weeks. 

Malanding cake.

And I'm not sorry!

PiP PiP Hooray - The Melange de Trois

And then, there were three. I'm going to call us the Pinays in Paris or PIPs until it sticks.

Jazel, Me and Mimi.

Photo courtesy of Jazel.

Mimi, Jazel and I finally got together today to shake and bake. We'd been organizing this get-together for so long it was the party planning equivalent of a Lav Diaz movie.

Long story short, they came to the apartment and we all made carrot cake to go with coffee and tea, coincidentally on the day HRH Prince William announced his engagement to whatsername.

So, Prince Harry, this one's for you.

Chim-chim-cheroo Carrot Cake 

(only because that makes it British)

Ingredients

• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup raisins
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Customized version: I found this recipe on the internet but I think it needs a sugar boost especially since we did not make a frosting. So If you're going to do this like I would next time, add another cup more of brown sugar (that means 2 cups) or use molasses instead, in the place of vegetable oil I would use butter to make it creamier, and I would add another egg (that's 4 eggs in total).

Directions:

1) Mimi grates the carrots and mixes it with the brown sugar
2) JJ crushes the walnuts... violently and with malice

3) I go down to monoprix for milk. This has nothing to do with the cake.
4) I give JJ the bowl of beaten eggs with sugar then I add the oil and vanilla while she continues to beat the mixture. I throw in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and when the mixture is thick, we add in the carrot-sugar melange, pineapples, raisins and walnuts

5) I realize I forgot to preheat the oven. I make like it's not a big deal and turn the oven up to 175° - If I had to do this again next time, I'd set it up to 200°

6) We pour the mixture into the pan and chuck it in the oven for about an hour

Enjoying tea and sympathy stories about the Philippine Embassy. If by sympathy you mean horror.
Photo courtesy of Jazel.

We didn't even wait for the cake to cool down. The two girls had a busy night ahead so we attacked the cake as soon as it was out the oven. Then they took some slices home to their men.

My man arrived earlier than I expected so he got a slice too.