March 5th: Happy Birthday to Moi: carrot cake, portos + goat cheese, loaded baked potato skins

Happy Birthday to me! (From Kat)

I first tried this Epicurious carrot cake in the summer of 2008 when I was home in Nova Scotia. Shannon's friend Shannon made it and I thought it was the best carrot cake I had ever eaten. I tried making it once myself before and it didn't taste as good as I remembered. I had faith in the recipe though, so for my 32nd (gulp) birthday, I thought O and I should give it another go-around. There's a lot in this recipe besides carrots: candied ginger, pineapple, coconut and macadamia nuts, and we topped the whole deal off with cream cheese icing. Yum yum yum. I skipped the three-tiered dealio and just made a 13x9 inch cake. I SHOULD have divided the batter between the big pan and one small or two mini pans. In retrospect, I remember that was the problem last time around: there is so much batter in the pan that the cake starts to burn around the outside before the middle is cooked. But it was still delicious and the best carrot cake I've ever eaten. My goodness, I've been eating A LOT of it this weekend!

If you don't like ginger, I recommend leaving it out. I love ginger and love coming across chunks of it in the cake, but I know that's not for everyone!

Hard at work

I simplified the cream cheese icing a bit:


Cream Cheese Icing


1 250 g (8 oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp each vanilla and coconut extracts
3 1/2 cups icing sugar


Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add extracts and beat again. Beat in icing sugar and, if necessary, chill until spreadable. Spread over cake and keep the whole deal refrigerated. Or just eat it in one sitting (not really!!).

For my birthday supper, I made two of my favourites: garlic-roasted portobello mushrooms and goat cheese, and loaded baked potato skins. The former comes out of my head and the latter is adapted from Crazy Plates. Here's my version of both:


Garlic-roasted Portobellos with Goat Cheese


1 portobello mushroom
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp each dried thyme, rosemary and parsley
2 tbsp goat cheese


Preheat oven to 400°F.


Remove and discard portobello mushroom stem and clean mushroom cap. Place gill-side up in oiled baking pan.


In a small bowl, combine garlic, oil and herbs and spoon mixture over mushroom.


Bake for 10-15 minutes, until garlic starts to get brown and crunchy (that's how I like it, anyway). Remove from oven and crumble goat cheese over top.


Return to oven and turn on broiler. Broil until cheese starts to warm up or gets browned, however you like it!


Makes 1 serving. Simply multiply the recipe amounts for each person you are feeding!

Loaded Baked Potato Skins


3 baking potatoes, scrubbed and bad spots cut away
1 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp olive oil
Cajun spice, to taste
4 bacon slices, cooked and chopped
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 green onions, sliced
salsa and sour cream to top


Preheat oven to 400°F. Poke holes in potatoes with fork or sharp knife. Lightly coat potatoes in butter. Bake for one hour, turning over halfway through, or until done. Remove from oven, split lengthwise, and let sit until cool enough to handle.


Carefully scrape out potato flesh, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Lightly brush both sides of potato skins with olive oil and place flesh-side up in baking pan. Sprinkle on Cajun spice to taste. Place under broiler for 5 minutes.


Remove from oven and top with bacon, cheese and green onions. Return to broiler and broil 2-3 minutes, until cheese is melted and potato skins are hot.


Serves 2-3. Serve topped with salsa and sour cream to taste.

I liked them better without bacon, and Greg was happy to eat my bacon for me.

To accompany, I made sugar snap peas, pan-fried with a finely diced shallot. I squeezed lemon on mine but left G&O's lemon-free. They eat enough lemon on my behalf as it is!

Awesome birthday supper. Great birthday weekend. Happy Kirsten. :)

Happy Olivia, cleaning out the icing bowl.