Maude and Dave's wedding - the cake

The wedding cake had to be a carrot cake. I made one for Johanna's wedding. (Judy had decorated it last time with cream cheese which wanted to melt, so we needed another solution this time. So Judy decorated part of this cake shown below, with regular decorator icing, and I iced the rest of the cakes with cream cheese icing).

Before I went to Toronto, I made two cakes in Ottawa. This was for the main cake Judy could put together for the decorated cake--that wouldn't have cream cheese icing on it.

Then we went to Toronto a week before the wedding, so I could make four more cakes to feed all the guests. Plus two additional cakes for my two daughters. That's a lot of cake.

Judy made one cake smaller for the top layer, and used the other cake for the next layer, and created a third large false layer (at least that's what I think she told me). And she actually transported the finished cake in the trunk of her car. Now that's gutsy.

Here is the cake, together with the cradle for it put together by her husband Kerry. Beautiful.

The recipe is based on the Looney Spoon ladies carrot cake recipe. Here is the (modified) recipe:

Carrot cake

Dry ingredients
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine above ingredients into a medium bowl

Wet ingredients
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
3 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups grated carrots

Combine above ingredients in large bowl

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and combine

I think the only thing I actually changed in the recipe, was that I didn't put in the applesauce called for, since I found the batter too wet and it took too long to bake. (I know this from when I made Johanna and Mike's cake.)

Each recipe was put into a 9 inch diameter round pan, about 4 inches high. Because the batter was so thick it took about 90 minutes to bake at about 300-325, lower than the usual 350 because you don't want the edges to burn.

Cream Cheese icing
1 1/2 packages of full fat brick light cream cheese (yea I know I never use full fat cream cheese but this was a wedding after all)
1/2 cup butter (ditto comments above)
2 tsp vanilla
1 kg icing sugar (should be about 8 cups of icing sugar)
a teaspoon or two of milk, if icing is too thick

Beat icing with an electric mixer and add milk if necessary to make icing spreadable.

This icing recipe makes enough for two cakes to generously ice top and sides of cakes. My cake doesn't look as gorgeous as Judy's cake. But I hear it tasted pretty good. I was too stuffed from the yummy dinner to have a piece though.

And that's the story of the cake.

Buttermilk scones

This started out as a recipe from Ireland. But the original recipe had 9 oz of milk and that was way too little. I had to add another half of a cup of milk last time. So this time I used a total of 2 1/4 cups of buttermilk.

I used to never buy buttermilk, and would always just sour milk with vinegar instead. But I have to say that I now think that buttermilk makes better scones, and of course brown bread.

Many scone recipes tell you to brush milk over the scones. I never do. But I'm thinking it might help them brown better.

15 scones

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt and sugar. Stir in raisins.

Add butter and buttermilk. Stir with a fork until a soft dough is formed.

Drop by large spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine took about 16 minutes, and it made 15 biscuits.

Very good.