Cute Retro Carrot Cake

I volunteered to make my sister's 30th birthday cake. You know what she wanted? Carrot cake. Weirdo.

I used this recipe from Live Well Bake Often which my Mum regularly uses. I wasn't mucking around with trying different recipes when I knew my sister likes this one!

My only thought was that it had to be pretty. She was doing a retro church fete theme, with raffles and door prizes and carrot cake. So my decoration had to match. I did copious amounts of research (thank you Pinterest!) and found the idea of curling carrot strips to make little roses.

Research ensued and I tried using a sugar syrup to coat and hold the carrot curls. I thought it was going to harden like toffee, but it didn't so I had to look again. In the end, they didn't go hard, but having a higher sugar to water ratio definitely helped the curls keep their shape. I also refrigerated them to help in hardening... that may have not helped now that I think on it (with the extra moisture in the fridge...). The darker curls pictured were coated with sugar syrup, while the lighter and looser curls were toffee coated. Toffee was messy and sticky to work with, but gave a better and cleaner result than sugar syrup.

To make the curls I used a corn cob holder - you know those little two pronged forks for holding a corn cob without burning the jeepers out of your fingers? It held the end of the carrot as I twirled and they turned out pretty well! I ended up making at least twice what is on the actual cake so I could choose the nicest ones. I really liked the ones that started off thicker in the middle as it gave a nice effect of a rose opening.

Again, Pinterest helped with the design, but I picked and chose different elements from my favourite designs. I loved the contrast of the small bits of green against the orange and white, and Mum always said that in art you do things in threes!

Everyone was impressed at the party and the cake tasted pretty good too! In hindsight I should have asked how many people were attending and made more cake, but oh well! Everyone got some at least. I am so proud of how this cake turned out!

Bake on,

Beth x