Best Ever Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for a Good Cause

First off,  HAPPY LABOR DAY! I hope everyone in the States is having a lovely extra day off with family and friends.  I’m sure a few of you are making my No Hassle Burgers and Healthy Potato Salad.  Now here is your dessert!

Gobs of gooey sweet cream cheese frosting surrounds this moist carrot cake filled with lovely comforting spice. You know I love recipes that use up leftovers (those last two carrots in the bottom of your crisper) and are most likely already in your cupboard. Well this recipe takes care of both of those things plus it tastes like a bit of heaven and incidentally goes great with a glass of cava, you’ll see later.

Fruity Oat Cake – Bananas, apples and raisins, OH MY!

I threw this cake together with what I had leftover in my fruit bowl and some cupboard staples.  Moist, sweet but not too sweet and packed with soft fruits.  This is one of the dishes I’m the proudest of because it was DELICIOUS, simple and helped use up some still useful but nearly overripe fruit.  I hate waste.  Get on this! I know it looks too healthy but I swear it tastes fantastic, like an oatmeal cookie jazzed up and turned into a great cake.  Serve with tea for added sophistication.

Banana Nut Bread

I don’t even like bananas but I love this recipe.  Have some bananas that you just couldn’t use up fast enough, going brown and soft?  Then don’t waste them, revamp them into this soft yummy banana nut bread.  But you don’t have any walnuts around the house?  No worries you can always omit the nuts.

Cinnamon Apple Muffins

I used to work at a college in a rural town about 2 hours north of Pittsburgh. There are three things that stick with me about my time there.  The first is that I met one of my greatest friends there and I am so thankful to have her in my life.  The second is that it had the most beautiful country campus with lots of flora and lovely leafy trees. The last was that the ladies in the cafeteria made some delicious cinnamon apple muffins.  The best part about these muffins was the big chunks of apple inside.  It was a very dissappointing day when I went down to the little cafe in the student union and they were sold out.

This recipe reminds me of those yummy muffins though it is an adaptation of the Apple Cake with Cinnamon Sugar Topping in the More from Magnolia cookbook by the infamous Allysa Torey of Magnolia Bakery fame.  My mum bought me this cookbook as a wedding present and it has proved a great staple in my house.  In Allysa’s recipe she uses canned apple filling and makes a coffee type cake from the recipe.  I’ve slightly adapted it to use fresh apples, as I’m not very keen on the canned apple filling I’ve found in the UK, and it can be used for muffins or makes a lovely breakfast bundt.

I hope you enjoy!

Apfelstrudel (Apple Strudel)

While trying to make French Apple Tarts I ended up creating this recipe. It is so easy to make since you do not have to make your own puff pastry. I’ve made this many times now and each time I’ve received many compliments because it looks so beautiful and tastes so good.

It is actually so good that I wasn’t able to take a finished picture before it was all eaten!  So I had to use a picture from a previous batch I’d made that I had taken with my cell phone. Don’t be scared off by the pics, whenever I serve this it goes so fast I always make two at a time!