Having your cake

When I became vegan four years ago, the first recipe book I bought was "Vegan with a Vengence" by Isa Chandra Moskovitz. It's a great book and I go back to it regularly but on my first flick through, there was one recipe that made my mouth water more than the others and my brain has been going back to it ever since: her ginger, macadamia, carrot cake with coconut frosting. The thing was, I never had all the ingredients to hand to make it. Until the other day. I finally pulled together the carrots, the crystallised ginger, the macadamia nuts, the coconut and the pineapple juice and actually made it, with the help of little man. I love this cake. It is spicy and nutty with a nice wholesome texture. The icing makes it quite sweet but the coconut does go so well with the ginger.

Ca fait quatre ans qu'une recette en particulier me donne envie. Quatre ans que régulièrement j'ouvre la page de la recette pour constater que je n'ai pas tous les ingrédients qu'il me faut. Là je n'en pouvais plus donc j'ai acheté le gingembre confite, les noix de macadamia, le jus d'ananas, le noix de coco et le lait de coco (qui font tous des apparitions chez nous mais apparemment d'une manière non-synchronisée) et... voilà: Mon gâteau de carottes au gingembre confit et aux noix de macadamia avec un glaçage de noix de coco. Délicieux! So the taste was excellent but the thing I loved best about this cake was sharing it. On Wednesday I took the pristine cake round to my neighbours' for afternoon tea. That evening, their son came over to ours and had a slice. The next day, yesterday, three workmen came to my house on a recky (boring so no details) and I offered them all coffee and... a slice of cake. So, in total 9 people enjoyed this cake (several of those having seconds) and I got to enjoy every single slice!!

Ce que j'ai préféré avec ce gâteau était de le partager. Avec mes voisins, avec leur fils, avec les 3 ouvriers qui étaient chez moi hier et avec ma petite famille. Comme ça j'ai pu savouré chaque tranche mais pas chaque calorie! It is case of 9 out of ten cats though because my little girl didn't even try it: carrots? yuck! Coconut? Yuck. Pineapple juice? Yuck. No thanks Mummy! Oh well. 9 out of ten aint bad! And tonight? Apple pie (or rather "tarte aux pommes") for her.

Seule ma fille n'a pas aimé. N'a même pas voulu y goûter. Carottes? Beurk! Gingembre? Beurk! Noix de coco? Beurk! Jus d'ananas? Beurk! Bref...

Ce soir: tarte aux pommes pour elle.