Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Butterscotch Carrot Cake and Restaurant Dirty Spots


Butterscotch (Caramelised) Carrot Cake

Earlier I posted a recipe for butterscotch banana cake. The cake is made by first caramelizing the sugar, then cooking bananas and butter in it. This process deepens the flavor and takes the humble banana cake to a whole new level! I did the same thing with carrot cake. The carrot cake had a much deeper flavour, it is light and moist. And there is no smell and only a mild taste of carrots, in case you are not a big fan of carrots. 

I prefer my cakes without icing or frosting. As a result the cake probably looks a bit naked and dull. The saying "its not the looks that count" applies to cakes as well. I like icing, however I would rather have two or more slices of cake without icing than have one slice with icing. Its a preference thing. Of course I can have two or more slices with icing, and given the opportunity I probably will, but thats another discussion. The recipe is available here.


Butterscotch (Caramelised) Carrot Cake   

Today's Favourite Photo
Retro Aspic Green Bean Casserole



Today’s Favourite Blog
What are the dirtiest places in a restaurant? ABC News correspondent Elisabeth Leamy and Dr. Philip Tierno of NYU's microbiology lab recently went undercover at 10 restaurants in three states. They sampled various surfaces for bacterial life using a cotton swab. 

Not surprisingly the dirtiest place is not the toilet, it’s the seats. Leamy speculated that the reason is that most restaurants don't think to sanitize chairs. The 10 most germ-infested parts of the restaurants is shown below.
 1. Seats
 2. Menus
 3. Lemon Wedges
 4. Salt and Pepper Shakers
 5. Tables
 6. Rims of Glasses
 7. Bathroom Door Knobs
 8. Bathroom Faucets
 9. Ketchup Bottles
 10. Salad Bar Tongs

Imagine having tequila shots, using lemon and salt, and a lemon wedge falls on the seat, which you pick up. You’ll end up covering 4 out of the top 6 items.

14 comments:

  1. Fantastic idea to improve a carrot cake! I also don't like icing (I mean I love to cover chocolate cakes with... chocolate, but I hate white icings whatever they are made of). I don't think it looks better with icing.
    The bacteria in restaurants... Yuck! I know that one should never eat peanuts served in bars and restaurants with drinks. The unfinished ones go to another client and another etc.. Since many people don't wash hands after toilets you can imagine what can be found in such peanuts...
    I always prefer olives, on toothpicks of course :-)
    I have recently learnt that one of the more bacteria infested things is a mobile phone (tactile screen of course). Apparently it's worse than toilets.

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    1. I've heard about peanuts and the extra flavours it gets over time! Even if people wash hands to be cleaner they don't realise they are touching other much dirtier places, and it ends up in peanuts!!! I suppose if you drink strong alcohol it might kill some of the bacteria!

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  2. The cake sounds really delicious!

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  3. That does not even look like a casserole, very nicely presented

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  4. Eve from Cheap Ethnic Eatz is so clever! I saw her take on the green bean casserole and thought how clever it was :D

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  5. Ok, definitely strong alcohol with peanuts then. Good idea, Mishter T ....(hic)
    I love your cake ... no icing needed. Don't like icings either, at least not the buttery rich ones, chocolate ganache I can do. It looks such a beautiful golden color and so moist!

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    1. Yes drink strong alcohol, for sanitation:) Its a necessity, its obligatory:)
      Thanks for loving the cake. Ganache might go well with the cake I suspect - maybe white choc ganache?

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  6. Your carrot cake looks outstanding!!! And I'm definitely bringing some hand sanitzer the next time we go out to eat...but not really sure that will help the rim of my glass or lemon wedge in my water :/

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  7. Oh thank you for picking my pic, its my first on your blog. I am honored :-)

    Oh caramelized carrot cake, I would wolf it down, it does sounds amazing. So bathrooms aren't so bad.

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