Carrot Cake
What can be better for celebrations in this time of the year but a lovely carrot cake?
Ingredients:
- 200g butter
- 200g brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 200g flour
- 2 tsp of cinnamon
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- 250g carrots (grated)
- 1,5 dl raisins
For the topping:
- 200g soft cheese
- 2 tbsp water
- 50g icing sugar
- 2 tsp orange juice
- 2 tsp orange skin
1. Melt the butter and transfer it to a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and eggs and mix lightly. Stir in the raisins and grated carrots.
2. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the mix to the main ingredients and mix everything evenly together.
3. Pour the mixture into a lightly greased tin and bake in the preheated oven 175°C for 1 hour.
4. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Let the cake cool down slightly then cover the top of the cake, allowing some of the topping to run down the sides. If you would like to tone the sweet taste down you can increase the amount of orange juice in the topping. Alternatively you may want to add crashed walnuts to the cake mix or use them to decorate the top of the cake.
Ashurst Vacation
We just came back from our six day vacation. We stayed in a lovely B&B in Ashurst and from there did our walk and cycle trips to the New Forest.
Day 1 - Getting there and a quick look around
We took a early train from Surbiton and were forced to switch to a bus in Southamton Airport Parkway. We reached Ashurst and ultimately our B&B around 1pm. We were given a bigger room than we booked, which was nice. We rested some time and decided to take a walk around the area (well OK, our hunger forced us). We ate a dinner in The Happy Cheese - which we will since then name anything but "Happy" in our conversations - then checked the local cycle hire and got a glimpse of the forest.
Back at the B&B we illegally played a game of chess (B. won), watched some TV and read some books. We did not have internet working until day 3 or 4.
Total distance: 2 km
Day 2 - What happens when we have to much energy to burn...
After an early and big breakfast we decided to walk to Lyndhurst instead of taking a bus and rent our cycles there. We took the direct route next to the quite busy road, so the walk turned out to be pretty boring and even playing a "guess the next car's colour' game didn't help much (btw. we're looking for a brown car still!).
In Lyndhurst we decided to visit the New Forest Information centre first and once there bought a cycle map. Then we decided to locate the cycle hire itself, which proved to be harder than it should be. A whistle from the owner helped. Since our legs where a bit tired after the walk we decided to sit down with some cold drinks in a coffee shop and later get some hot cross buns for lunch to take with us.
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The cycle route we chose ended up being 27km long, but quite nice. The day was warm and we got a bit lost only once. ;]
Once back at Lyndhurst for whatever reason we actually found that we still have energy to burn and walked back to Ashurst. We took a detour this time to avoid the main road's noise. While on this leg of the day's adventures we saw lots and lots of the famous New Forest ponies.
Total distance: 42 km
Day 3 - Time to regenerate - A trip to Lymington Town
The next day our legs decided to scream "tired" to us, so we set ourselves towards the sea side - by train to Lymington Town. Once there we first went to the Quay then up the High Street and to the information centre for some local maps (we forgot to take any kind of maps with us). We decided to take a walk around the Lymington-Keyhaven Nature Reserve.
Unfortunately the tide was low so the area wasn't as pretty as it could be. Nevertheless we saw some selection of birds (and one deer), as well as a family of little ducklings.
Once back in the harbour we looked at a huge selection of yachts and boats. Later we let our legs rest in Cafe Nero and after sprinting to the train we made it back to Ashurst as early as 2pm. We decided we deserve to be lazy for the rest of the day, and once that decision was made nothing could change it.
Total distance: 9.5 km
Day 4 - Off into the Ashurst Forest
Since previous two days took us away from our base we thought it's only fair to try the local rotues. We walked down Ashurst and then towards the Wild Life Farm. Then into the forest. We did not plan that trip at all so we had a decision to make at every fork and crossing. In the end it topped up to 9km and a stronger tan on our faces.
Total distance: 9 km
Day 5 - The Longest Walk Ever!
It was supposed to be a nice easy walk. Turned out to be nice, but not at all easy.
We took a bus to Lindhurst and with legs rested and spirits high we set ourselves on the road to Bolderwood. Once again we had nothing with us, besides a phone and some money. We went up five kilometres to the Bolderwood fork (though we stopped believing in ourslves 300m before our target and had to refer to our gps for help). It was a long walk already and we found that it's only fair if we celebrate our "mid" (not so "mid in the end) point with some ice cream and a shot break. Once fed and rested we went to the viewing platform to spy on a deer family.
From there we took the forest cycle tracks walking "parallel" to the Ornamental Drive. The two joined together towards the end and thanks to that we could visit what is thought to be the oldest (and in our opionion the most ugly) tree in the New Forest: The Knightwood Oak. A hundred or so meters further the Ornamental Drive comes to the main road of the New Forest, which unfortunately has no side walks and feels terribly noisy after the bird songs of the forest. We gave up on walking by it after a few hundred meters and entered the forest again, now off-track. After a forest-y bit, grassy bit, two rivers that we had to jump over we met a few strangers who reassured us that we are indeed going the right direction. We also could follow a small path from there.
We found civilisation soon after and made our way to Lyndhurst's centre. Since it was a bank holiday the bus went every two hours and we just missed one by a few minutes. We used the time by eating an early dinner and taking a quick look around shops. We made it back to our B&B at 6pm.
Total distance: 19 km
Day 6 - Time to go home
Not much to say here. We ate breakfast. Packed. Paid for our room and run an early train (9:42) which means we were back home around noon.
You can look at all that in more detail on the map below
(or here for a larger view and greater control).
View Ashurst Vacation - April 2011 on a bigger map
Concert
We have recently been on a concert of this lovely gentelmen. Well worth our time. =)
New Sofa!
So the good news is we finally got a new sofa! It's nice and cosy. It's a "Cuddler" type. It has a unique design and generally is a fun piece of furniture.
The bad news is we will get it in around 8 weeks and... its just a sofa, not a sofa bed so we sill need to figure out how to make our future guests sleep-happy.
Happy New Year!
Ten days passed like a lightning. We just came back to our little home in UK and discovered we need more shelves if we're to get more presents of the book/dvd kind. =)
Christmas makeover
We decided to share a bit of our life with our friends and family on our new blog.
We'll try to write whenever something exiting or important happens, but can't promise that will be often. ;]
As you can hopefully see the site undertook a winter-festive makeover. With time we will probably make some bigger changes here and there, but we'll keep the site as simple and cosy as possible.
Next week at this time we'll be in Denmark celebrating Christmas. We're definetly looking forward to seeing everyone there (and all the presents, and cats, and eating all the cookies, and...) but until that time we have to still go to work for a few days and make a very challenging journey through snow-covered UK.
Meanwhile, today, we'll make some shakes with orio/twix and try to finish the never-ending-game: Final Fantasy XIII.
