Easy baking carrot and rhubarb cake Posted by petra08 on April 13, 2015 · Leave a Comment

So the thing about baking and me, it just doesn’t seem compatible most of the time. I have a few “safe” recipes, funny enough they all involve chocolate even if I am not a massive chocolate fan but they always work. Don’t get me wrong I eat chocolate but it would never be my first choice and baking is a messy business, I seem to end up with flour all over the kitchen, in the cake or bread and myself.

My first instinct when I was asked to review Betty Crocker was actually to decline, yepp the wimp in me came out and shouted NO! The products is all about easy baking and M has a major sweet tooth so I thought maybe this would be easier. Said and done I was sent a carrot cake mix and vanilla buttermilk icing, what could possibly go wrong?

I put my apron on and started reading the instructions. It seemed like a breeze, all I had to add was eggs, water and vegetable oil.

Here is the official picture of the cake

The icing came nice and ready to spread, I like that.

The cake is nice and tall, it looks airy and very tasty.

The whole cake mix comes in a bag so it is super easy. My urge for baking came the same day I picked the first rhubarb from the allotment! Needless to say I had to use some of it in the cake! Sorry Betty Crocker, my inability to follow a recipe to the tee came out. I sliced two stalks and mixed in the batter.

I greased and filled a cake tin, it looked great, a little professional even! I decided to read the instructions one last time and then realised that the cake mix was for two cakes. To be used in the same cake but still not baked at once. I don’t have two cake tins so I poured about half in to a bowl and set aside and baked the first half.

Once baked I left it to cook on a rack.

I could clearly see the rhubarb and the cake had an intriguing smell of spices. Once the cake tin was rinsed and dried I started again, poured the second cake mix batch in the greased tin and put it in the oven. Whilst that was cooking I got side tracked in to doing something else. The second batch was in the oven for about 7 minutes too long, I realised this, let out a somewhat rude word and rushed to the kitchen to whip the cake out of the oven.

I had visions of a strange half cut looking cake but it was fine! I let the cake cool, carefully poking it to see if it was still fine, a bit anxious about baking. I need not have been worried at all. I opened the vanilla buttercream style icing and started to spread it on the first cake.

I added the second cake on top and continued spreading until the whole cake was covered. I decorated it with some edible dried flowers and voila! I had actually baked a cake!

I am not sure about you but it doesn’t look too shady does it? This easy baking might have been created for me, just perfect and it even survived my forgetful way of baking, that is impressive. M thought it was cake heaven and let me know that he will be supporting should I wish to make this cake again.

The cake is light and airy, the rhubarb added some acidity, perhaps even better for me who am not super fond of very sweet things but the icing was delicious and I even went back for a second slice.