I hope all my fellow Brisbanites survived the weekend of wild weather. Storm number one on Saturday morning delayed our departure to the coast and left us without power into the evening (so good thing we went to the coast).

Storm number three, which hit yesterday in the early evening, struck just as we were coming into Brisbane. My super hero driver husband got us home safely with me frozen to my seat in sheer terror. Excuse the side on view but if you want a little bit of a feeling of driving through a Queensland summer storm check out my video.

Currently I can hear the annoyingly persistent beeping of the hard-wired fire alarm in our garage store room. One of the pipes sprung a leak which somehow set off the alarm and only a sparky can fix it. Said busted pipe happens to be directly over our storage cupboard and the box full of Christmas decorations on top. I haven’t investigated the damage yet. Not that buying all new Christmas decorations would be unenjoyable but it has put me one step even further back in the Christmas preparations.

One thing I’m not short of for Christmas is sweet recipes. Just this morning I was working on a bit of a baking schedule (should work on an exercise schedule to go with it or I might be able to fit out a Santa suit by the time the jolly man visits) and am rather excited to get started – you know how much I love baking.

I also love a baking challenge and this month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop theme of cake and three vege had me put my thinking cap on. Carrot was the first bakable vegetable that came to mind and a flick through my new Christmas cookies book uncovered the perfect recipe – carrot cake biscuits.

Sweet but not too sweet, with a tang of the cream cheese and spice of cinnamon, these biscuits taste like they should be enjoyed in front of a fire place with snow falling outside. They’re also just as good enjoyed in the sweltering heat. They’re pretty easy to whip up and the ingredients are easy to find so they’re perfect for the Christmas baking list.

To find out more about the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, visit JJ, this month’s host over at 84th and 3rd and have a slice of here mouth-watering cinnamon and cauliflower coffee cake.

As I said last week, I’m not going to include individual step by step photos any more unless there’s a tricky step that needs explaining. Instead, read this little pictorial in clockwise order and you’ll see just how easy these tasty treats are to whip up.

I didn’t bother peeling my carrots before grating them in the hope that the purple would remain. You can see the odd fleck of it but it wasn’t quite the effect I was going for. They’re pretty much like any basic biscuit recipe to make. Start by beating the butter for a minute until it’s smooth then add the sugars, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and beat it all together until they’re nice and creamy. Add the egg and beat it through too along with the orange essence and vanilla extract.

Mix in the flour on low speed then you can either add the carrot, coconut and oats to the mixer to combine it all or stir them in by hand. You know I used the mixer. The dough is a little bit too soft to roll so use a teaspoon to heap little blobs onto a lined baking tray and leave at least 2cm between each one. Bake them for 12-14 minutes or until they start to turn golden.

The consistency of these biscuits is a little bit cakey on the inside not chewy like you’d expect from their Anzac-like appearance. Once they’re cooked, leave them on the trays for a couple of minutes to firm up and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile make the icing by beating the cream cheese and butter together until they’re nice and smooth. Add the icing sugar and keep beating until the icing is white and a good consistency to spread onto the biscuits.

Use a little blob at a time and coat each biscuit with icing. You can spread it all the way to the edges but I liked the look of a biscuit border.

Apparently they keep for three days in an airtight container. As soon as I’d tasted one I shipped the rest off to Uni with my sister for study snacks so I don’t think they made it past a day. Enjoy!

Carrot cake biscuits with cream cheese icing

Yield: 65

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Ingredients

• BISCUITS
• 250g butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp finely shredded orange meal or 1 tsp orange essence
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1 cup shredded carrots (2 medium)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• ICING
• 125g cream cheese, softened
• 70g softened butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups icing sugar

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan-forced and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter for 30 seconds.
3. Add the sugars, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and beat them through.
4. Beat through the eggs, orange peel or essence and vanilla.
5. Add the flour and beat it through then add the coconut, oats and carrot and beat them through until they are mixed in.
6. Using a teaspoon of dough at a time, spoon the batter onto the trays leaving a couple of centimeters between each one.
7. Bake the biscuits for 12-14 minutes or until they start to turn golden.
8. Leave the biscuits to cool on the trays for a couple of minutes and then transfer them to wire racks to cool.
9. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth and fluffy then slowly add the icing sugar and beat until it is spreadable.
10. Spread the cooled biscuits with cream cheese icing.
11. Biscuits will keep for about 3 days stored in an airtight container.
12. Un-iced biscuits can be frozen for up to 3 months.

 

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