Onion Jam and Carrot Cake
I spent some time with my mother’s recipe book yesterday, 
which looks suspicously like my own.
I thought I might try her custard recipe, (eggs you see!) but I understand now why she always ended up making it from the Edmonds Instant Custard packet. I cannot work out her recipe for Elaine’s custard either. 
I decided to make carrot cake instead from Deb’s recipe book. I have been after this recipe for years and Deb had to go back to an old friends to finally find it for us. And her daughter kindly copied it from Debs recipe book while I was visiting. 
So I shall share this with you.
Louisa’s Carrot Cake
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 eggs
- 1 small tin crushed pineapple
- 2 small cups sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup grapeseed oil (or sunflower)
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 scant tsp salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Mix everything together. (typical NZ method) Bake at 180 (350F) for 40 – 60 minutes.
Cream Cheese Icing (Frosting)
- 125g cream cheese (1/2 small carton)
- 60g butter (1/2 US stick)
- 2tsp grated orange rind
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
I have to admit that the icing is my favourite part of this cake. Store in the fridge.
Earlier I had made some Home-made fresh cheese and on the wood stove was onion jam. Chopped onions caramelised with red wine, balsamic, brandy and 1 heaped teaspoon of brown sugar.
So we had a very tasty afternoon.
There now. Thats enough cooking for one day. 
The Daily View. 
Good morning. We are still below freezing -yes I have put sand on the steps and my long silk drawers should be arriving this week. It is 14F (-10C) this morning but there is a rumour that the weather will warm up this coming week, just a little would be nice, though so far this winter has been mild and we can’t complain really.
I keep meaning to say that I still visit the Old Codger twice a week and he sends his love. He is doing very well.
Have a lovely day.
celi
73 Comments on “Onion Jam and Carrot Cake”
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thekitchensgarden 
it sure is going to warm up! we are going to be in the 60’s…ugh! where did you find your silk underlings?
I found them on amazon, Johns have turned up already, but not mine!! Sixties!! oh dear, that is too warm for your plants.. hope it is not for too long.. a few days is nice, we can all take a big breath before we plunge back in again.. c
I’ve just discovered my grandmother’s cookery book. It’s full of wonderful gems, some of which go back to HER grandmother. Some of them are really going to take some working out, but it’s good to have a continuation, don’t you agree? Hope you don’t mind the reblog.
Thank you for the reblog, I am grateful, yes, this one is multigenerational too and interesting how some of the recipes are ones I thought I had ‘discovered’ all by myself and there they are, .. c
Reblogged this on Yummy Foody Finds.
That cake looks fantastic. Katherine keeps telling me I need to make onion jam.
I make this just about every week, such a shame my own onions did not last into the winter… morning greg.. love to K.. c.
I think the NZ way of cooking is class! My kind of cooking x
Just about everyone who reads these pages can cook so there is no need to tell us how to do it, most of the time we just want to know what is in it anyway.. morning claire..c
Hello Cecilia! Love this post… I also inherited my mother’s recipe book, which is slightly disintegrating at the spine after receiving much ‘love’ over the years 🙂 One of my favourite things that she made was an apple spice cake. Every time I make it I feel two feet tall again, straining my little legs to see above the kitchen bench! Thanks for sharing this recipe also. I love carrot cake… it’s one of my all-time favourites (and the vege content makes me feel just slightly healthy whilst I’m eating it!) x
Morning Laura and welcome to the comments lounge! That apple spice cake sounds fantastic, mum used to make something similar but she never wrote down the ones she made often, they had to stay in our heads..And i do know about those broken spines, both mine are positively ragged.. c
Love the look of the fresh cheese and pickles – excellent. Glad the old Codger’s well – give him a “meilleurs voeux pour 2013” from me and France:)
I shall pass it on, he speaks a little french too so I shall tell him verbatim! c
I’m drooling – specially at the confit d’onion. My carrot cake recipe is similar. You have to eat it straight away (no hardship) as the top goes mouldy mighty quickly. My recipe books look like yours!
I have to confess that I put this onion on just about everything, it is the perfect complement.. c
good morning C
the onion jam looks fantastic gonna try that today my boy loves onion and he is whoppin 3 yrs old
the carrot cake looks great! thanks for the Post Saints
I’m intrigued by that carrot cake recipe. What’s a small cup (the sugar measurement)? M xx
A small teacup is what we always used before the advent of perfect measurements! My mother always said just as long as you use the same cup for everything..But I think it is ok to cut down on sugar a wee bit.. morning misky! c
Excellent, and good sound advice. And good morning, c! xx
I was going to ask the same question about the small cup. So we’re talking about a “scant” cup? Cake looks wonderful. And that stuffed cookbook could be my grandmother’s, which I have. She was a “pinch of this, handful of that” kind of cook, too, and her cakes and pies were to die for. I do still make her custard sometimes; we call it “boiled custard” and I’ve always assumed it’s a Southern thing!
I want to learn how to make boiled custard, so far I have not been pleased with my attempts, but i LOVE hot pourable custards.. c
I’ll send you the recipe. : )
that would be awesome.. thank you! c
Good morning C i am going to have to go try that for my boy he loves onions at three so this would be great yes he even likes them raw the cake looks fantastic also its colder than i would like there 22f here in WV thanks for the post saints
Morning Saint, your wee boy would adore this, I put it on toast too! next time i am making it with honey just to see how it works out.. though I think the honey would have to be added right at the end to prevent burning? c
WOW what a turn out!!! I didn’t have any brandy other than blackberry and some balsamic I had just gotten and sugar in the raw but did it turn out well 🙂 🙂 🙂 yum yum thanks C
excellent, that was fast – and blackberry brandy sounds fantastic with it, I use whatever I have around too! Thank you for popping back!! c
I awoke to the smell of onions (I thought who’s fixing liver and onions after being up most of the night with our sick 3 year old) but it was yummy onion jam! Now he’s asleep after letting my have a few extra winks.
hope he is starting to feel better, in fact onions and honey are good for colds too! c
He’s been running a temp over 103F. I can bring it back down but within 4 hours it starts to climb again. It’s not unusual with my kiddos to run high temps when they’re sick. I just hope it’s not the flu. We went on our once-a-month shopping trip on Friday and by Sunday he was sick. No wonder I never want to go anywhere! 🙂
Oh dear, he may have caught something, but he is home with Mum so that is a good place to be.. c
It all sounds wonderful; especially the onion jam. When I inherited my mother-in-law’s recipes I found mostly cake, dessert, cookies and jello recipes. The woman lived for sweets, had the unhealthiest diet I ever saw, and lived ’til 90 anyway!
I truly believe their high fat, high energy diet was the thing, it was the last fifty years of recipes we ned to avoid, lots of chemicals and replacement foods were creeping in..our grandmothers and greatgrandmothers had the recipes to have.. I think anyway.. c
I have to agree. I once had an afternoon course of cooking proper French desserts – mousse au chocolat, pain perdue, clafoutis… – in the country kitchen of a very slim lady, the farmer’s wife, who said that if you are cooking with real, i.e., natural, home or locally grown ingredients, you will not gain weight. Of course, consuming them in moderation and being active are part of the equation.
Thanks for telling me the Old Codger is OK. Also, I find onion jam quite odd. Do you eat this on bread or crackers. I agree about the cream cheese frosting; love it.
Beautiful lighting in your images today.
Well, it looks like your weather will be warming just as ours is cooling. I hear we are due to drop below freezing at the end of the week after days of unseasonable warmer weather – and great dullness. Fingers crossed for sunshine!
Your NZ method of cooking is just my style. We are not as cold as you are but from you photos it appears we got a lot more snow. Going to be in the 40’s starting tomorrow and will last a few days, I hope. Keeping meaning to make onion jam but never got around to it, got to get moving.
Deeee-licious!
Oh how I miss cream cheese frosting! I’ve tried two or three imitation non-dairy “cream cheeses”…and let me just say, yuck. They’ve all ended up in the garbage. The closest I can come is canned cream cheese frosting that really isn’t cream cheese at all and the rule of thumb is not to look at all of the bad stuff that’s in the ingredients list. Ha!
I LOVE the porch picture with Kupa and the kitty on the table. Gorgeous!
I would love to sit down with your mother’s recipes and a nice cup of tea… I imagine it would be a window into your life and that things that are important to you…. I love old recipe collections so much!
Oh you did have a delicious day! The carrot cake looks and sounds fabulous! It’s one of my favorites and with cream cheese frosting…yum!
surely everyone would like to come for coffee.. me too 😉
Your mum’s recipe book reminds me of my mum’s 🙂
I love carrot cake but without the frosting..I know..I know..I am messing the best part 🙂
I look forward to trying this recipe. If it is something you were looking for, then it must be special
When I saw the first shot of your mom’s recipe book and before I scrolled down, I thought…that looks like mine! Love the little peaks in the frosting on your pretty carrot cake. And onion jam and homemade cheese, too? Sounds like a truly delicious afternoon…wish I could have stopped by. I can’t tell if the cat is admiring the peacock or vice versa. 🙂
There are beautifully photographed cookbooks. Cookbooks with slick covers and shiny pages. Cookbooks that promise to make you a star in the kitchen. They all have something in common. They are soulless. I see your cookbook. I want to hold it. Caress the pages. Decipher the scribbles. Hold the memories. These are truly the cookbooks to treasure Celi. Happy thoughts for the coming week and the warm silk underwear. V.
My warm underwear just arrived, so that will make all the difference! morning V.. c
Those handmade type of recipe books are the best tested and best tasting!
This has gone to the save file… I love carrot cake….
I don’t have a very sweet tooth but I’d like to try that 😉
It’s good to hear that the Old Codger is well too!
Sounds Delicious! I love how your animals claim the porch as their own – ha! Happy Monday:)
Mmmmmm…… lovely day, lovely food, perfect. Glad you mentioned the Old Codger, Celi, I too wondered about him.
he is a box of birds, another good thing about the mild winter.. c
I’m such a horrible cook…I measure with my hand and my eye and my fingers. Drives my math teacher daughter nuts. I’ve tried the other way and it seems so bland…give me daring I guess.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
{{laughter!!}} c
My mother’s cookbook looks just like that! She used to make a fine egg custard, but her bread-and-butter custard was the best of all. Glad to hear of the old codger. I still remember your phrase, ‘Everyone needs an old person.’ It goes with me in my handbag each day, along with my keys, purse, and other essentials.
I bet you have a few that see that handbag on their kitchen tables too! c
Your mother’s recipe book looks a lot like my mom’s!! And adding in pineapple to carrot cake is my favorite! Such beautiful photos, looks like a lovely..cold.. day!
Glad to hear the Old Codger is doing well! Everything looks delicious. My mother had the same cookbook!
Morning Miss C, I inherited the matriach’s NZ cookbooks a couple of years ago when she stopped cooking; she turns 101 on 21st January. e
I think 99 is a perfect age to stop cooking.. though i am considering stopping doing dishes a little before that! c
A baker and cake eater I have never been, even before I got so obnoxiously health conscious, BUT have on occasion made banana and nut bread and carrot cake, Perhaps they just sound less sinful 😉 ! Have never put pineapple in mine [such a Down Under ‘thing’!] and just have to try!
True!! we Down Unders need to stick together and of course (re the healthy food thing) in this cake you get your fruit AND your veges.. next time i shall make it with honey, then we are really cooking!! c
Such wonderful cookbooks!
I adore carrot cake so this looks wonderful. Cold cold cold there, keep warm!
you must be a little chilly where you are too, though i am assuming that you have gotton your world back in order after the big storm and do have heating.. i hear some people Are not doing so well!
Yes, luckily the heat is on and there is also plenty of firewood, just in case!
I was going to say I’d like to make some onion jam but who am I kidding? I’ve got all of the jam that I could possibly use for the next year. I need to either give some of it away or make sure to eat some daily — even then I probably won’t get through it all! Your cream cheese frosting with it’s orange zest sounds delicious! Though I like carrot cake, the cream cheese frosting is always my favorite part. Yours even more so.
Have a great Tuesday, Celi!
That cheese looks fantastic, all plump and relaxed.
Glad the old Codger is doing well! Thanks for visiting him (who gets the most out of that, I wonder – giggle. It is very neighborly of you – becoming more and more rare – maybe not in rural areas?)
Love the recipe books pix – real life in those. (carrot cake…drooling – will bookmark…Your kitchen must always smell wonderful!)
Cheese and onion jam sound fantastic, got to try that combination
Sometimes I wonder why I bother to make the cake when the icing is so good on its own. 🙂 good day, c!
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