Baking
There is something deeply therapeutic about home baking. It is soothing and restorative. It’s a call for creativity without the showstopper pressure of looking a particular way- it just needs to taste delicious.
As a long-term sufferer of clinical depression I have found baking to be one of the very few things that I can still continue to connect with. Baking doesn’t bring me happiness as such however, but that isn’t the point here. What it does bring through its methodical process is a sense of inner peace and calm. It’s an achievement. It allows me to communicate the love and affection that I feel towards my family and friends when perhaps verbal communication feels too painful. Often these feelings are overridden by depression.
If you haven’t done so before why not giving baking a go? It does not matter if you can’t decide on a recipe straight away and it doesn’t even matter if you don’t fancy tasting any once its baked- that sense of achievement will still be there. Have no expectations of yourself and see where your mixing bowl takes you. I’ve included a recipe for a classic carrot cake in case you’re struggling for inspiration. You can switch it up to your own taste by using different nuts, dried fruit and varying the amounts of cinnamon and spice.
Em
Peer Trainer for East Sussex CAMHS Discovery College
Classic Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
175g light brown sugar
200ml vegetable or sunflower oil
200g plain flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
200g grated carrot
100g chopped walnuts (you can leave out the nuts altogether if preferred)
70g raisins or sultanas
Buttercream icing:
75g soft butter
150g icing sugar (sieved)
1 or 2 tablespoons of milk/almond/oat milk etc
Handful of whole walnuts to decorate
Method:
Preheat the oven to 130 degrees or 150 degrees fan assisted.
Grease and line a baking tin (I use a round tin or loaf-shaped tin) with baking paper or parchment paper. This will help when you release the cake from its tin once baked.
In a large bowl beat together the sugar, eggs and oil until they’re completed combined. An electric whisk will be your best friend for this, but you can also do this by hand.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice.
Sift the floury mix into the wet ingredients and stir until fully combined. The cake mixture at this point might be stiff but rest assured the carrots will loosen the batter.
Stir in the grated carrot, raisins and chopped nuts until completely combined. The cake mixture will be quite runny at this point- that’s perfect!
Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin and bake for 65 minutes. Don’t worry if the cake cracks on top, it’s just doing its delicious thing.
Once baked and smelling incredible allow the cake to cool completely in the tin before icing it.
To make the buttercream icing, cream together the butter and sieved icing sugar. I add a large spoon of icing sugar in at a time to the butter otherwise you will end up with a huge cloud of icing sugar in your face!
Once all the icing sugar has been added the buttercream might be quite stiff so add in a tablespoon of milk at a time and give it a stir. You want to end up with a smooth, spreadable buttercream.
Carefully remove the cake from the tin and spread the buttercream on top of the cake and decorate as you wish with the whole nuts. Ta-dah! Whether its rustic looking or smooth and dainty, you have just baked yourself a delicious carrot cake to be proud of!
