On Saturday afternoon I listened to the afternoon play on Radio 4 and baked The Best Carrot Cake In The Known Universe and promptly transmorgifurated into my Gran. I can’t take the credit for the recipe though I have no idea where I found it and I just make it from memory now. It’s moist and light and very moorish:
- 1 cup plain flour, 1 teaspoon of baking power, 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 cup raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, pinch of salt
- 5 tablespoons cold-pressed oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of grated carrot
- 400g of chopped pineapple
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Grease and flour a 20cm cake tin and preheat the oven to 180° C. Mix up everything except the carrots, pineapple and walnuts. Fold in the carrots, pineapple and walnuts. Bake in the oven for 45-50mins. For the icing use 200g of fat free cream cheese, the juice of a lemon and enough icing sugar to thicken. Grate the lemon rind on top for fanciness.
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Despite having the atmosphere of an abandoned primary school, Bletchley Park is a brilliant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Particularly if you are a maths, engineering, or computer nerd. Or you just love the history of the WWII codebreakers and Alan Turing’s genius. The Enigma machine was used by German forces to trade cryptic messages. These were intercepted by listening stations and sent to Bletchley Park where attempts to decode the raw information used increasingly sophisticated technology, leading to the creation of Colossus; the earliest digital computer.
I loved the stories of the young women who worked at the Park. There were about 400 Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service) who worked in shifts so information was fed to Bletchley 24 hours a day via a teleprinter. The breaking of the codes is credited with reducing the number of casualties at sea from German U-boat attacks and the work at Bletchley Park is thought to have shortened the war by at least two years.
Churchill referred to the Bletchley staff as ‘My geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled’.
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Remember the nearly-brother-in-law? This weekend he was chatting to the Herald on Sunday about being a man.
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Also: the defnitive list of awesome has been updated. You’re welcome :)
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Simply lovely. Carrot cake is one of my favorite indulgences and I shall be making this very soon…
sas Replied:
Enjoy!
I love a nice moist carrot cake and haven’t had any in ages, and conveniently still have half a bag of carrots leftover from Thanksgiving dinner…. I may have to make this cake this week.
I never knew Bletchley (or anything like it) existed (thank you American education) until I saw the film Enigma (with Kate Winslet.
sas Replied:
I loved that movie too!
Though it seems it was ‘very loosely’ based on the events at Bletchley.