Carrot, Pineapple, Coconut and Walnut Cake. A genteel moment before we once again Root, Shoot, Marry

Ah, the Ladies Lounge. A quiet corner of an otherwise rowdy public house. A comfortable, tasteful room for ladies of refinement, and perhaps their gentlemen friends. In the Ladies Lounge, they can relax and enjoy a cup of Earl Grey tea and a generous slice of Carrot, Pineapple, Coconut and Walnut Cake, perhaps even eating a second slice before calling for the vodka shooters and getting legless while playing Root, Shoot, Marry.

Pineapple, Carrot, Coconut and Walnut Cake, courtesy of the Favourite Recipes of Rotary Ladies of District 965 recipe book, circa 1986.
2 cups self-raising flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup well-drained crushed pineapple (from a tin- we prefer Golden Circle brand)

preheat oven to moderate - 180-200C or 375-400 F and grease a cake tin of about 8-10 inches

Sift flour, salt, bicarb and cinnnamon into a larg bowl. Stir in the sugar (I used caster, ymmv).
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the eggs, oil and vanilla essence.
Beat well with a wooden spoon.
Stir in carrots, walnuts, coconut and pineapple

Pour into greased cake tin and bake 45-50 minutes until cooked and a skewer in centre comes out clean (or almost clean, I like the middle just a tiny bit underdone). Leave in the tin 10 minutes after taking it from the oven.

You can ice this cake, and the Rotary Ladies recommend a vanilla cream cheese frosting, but with the cinnamon-y smell drifting all through the Ladies Lounge I never have the patience.

Eat the cake, sip your tea, rub your tummy and move on to the hard liquor.

mtc
Bec

Garden Update - Spring is Sprung!

So, yes, spring is sprung and while we're still making plans for the back gardens the front yard is taking a very cottage-y shape.

The azaleas I thought were so hideous when we moved in have shown their true colours (bottom left) - but I don't know if I can live with 11 months of ugliness just to enjoy this spectacle once a year!

We've gone large on daisies of all kinds: lovely, happy, kid-friendly flowers that they are.

Other plants that have gone in since we arrived are the housewarming gifts: a lemon, a lime, bottlebrush, lavender (top row, centre). There is also a fabulous geranium sitting happily and permanently in a large pot on the back steps and a gardenia florida waiting for the right spot to claim it. I've added a grevillea, spring jasmine, a hedge of murrayas and a couple of Australian native climbers.

The beautiful double camellia, bottom centre, is actually our neighbour's but grows through our fence looking for northern sun so I'm happy to claim this bloom.

The other pre-existing plant in this collage is a bit of a mystery to me. Can anyone tell me if the yellow blossomed plant (centre right) could be a kind of lilly pilly? Before it bloomed I thought it was, but the yellow has thrown me. The blossoms came from a bright green berry and the leaves have gone from red to green as it grows. The flowers, by the way, have a beautiful scent from up close.

Expect more of this as spring continues to sprung.

mtc
bec 

Red Tweed, for Suse

Breathe easy, internets, my Blogger/photo bitching is over. Being, in truth, a Bear of Very Little Brain, I realised last night that my pic problems stemmed back to the loss of Old Laptop and the use of New Laptop. Biggest difference? I hadn't loaded Picasa onto New Laptop. While all the other suggestions to fix the problem - from Firefox to Flickr to some really complicated ftp thing that a Bear of VLB had no chance of following - may have been technologically superior, at least I understand Picasa, and that will have to do.

So I am fulfilling a longstanding promise to show Suse what Bendigo Wool Mills Red Tweed looks like when knitted up. The sideways smile of the Gorgeous Boy is a bonus for the ladies.
mtc
Bec