The Carrot Cakes of Dubai

A good looking carrot cake 

Whilst pregnant I aquired a 4 O'clock cake habit. I told everyone that this was due to a 'pregnancy craving'.....this was in fact a huge lie!.........I wasn't really 'craving' anything at all, I just like to eat cakes and reckoned that being preggers was the perfect excuse to justify eating cake every day!

A particular favourite is Carrot Cake, I simply adore a whacking great chunk of the not so healthy as it sounds carrot cake, which disappointingly can't be counted as one of your 5 a-day fruit & veg intake either.

However, there can be so much variance between one carrot cake to the next it's always a gamble when ordering carrot cake in new Cafe. So to help you all, I very altruistically tasked myself to find the best carrot cakes of Dubai and report back.......please no medals.

Some carrot cake history

Carrot cake  has interesting origins dating way back to the Middle Ages when refined sugar and imported dried fruit were rare and expensive, so poor folk used carrots as an alternative sweetener. It then became fashionable again during the second world war when war time rationing made sugar and fruits become rare again, however there was a surplus of carrots!

War time poster

All carrot cakes are not created equal and I have a very specific criteria about the correct combination of components that make up a perfect carrot cake, a great article exploring this further and comparing different recipes can be found in here.

My prefect carrot cake criteria:

• Must include large soft sultanas - not spiteful little raisins
• Must include walnuts - not pecans, pine nuts or any other type of nuts and not too many either
• A musky, soft spiced cinnamon crossed with mild ginger flavour
• A moist, firm texture with rich dark colour - I don't trust a pale carrot cake
• Fleck's of actual carrot you can see
• Must have cream cheese frosting - sounds obvious but I have heard tell of Carrot cakes with no frosting?!....the point of which I can not comprehend.
• Multiple layers of frosting not just on the top
• Extra points awarded for a little marzipan carrot decoration!

The measure used is my own stars system whereby the maximum is 5 stars *****, which equals a perfect carrot cake!



Rich - MOE  *1 Star

Rich Cafe was a new try for us and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it as I liked the décor and menu a mix.

The cakes were shown off in a beautiful glass fount counter and looked amazing.


However the size of the carrot cake is frankly scary and I'm not one to pass up a generous serving of cake but this slice was gargantuan, too big in fact.


The texture was dry and the flavour bland and often felt like chewing a mouthful of wood chip just to get through it. The frosting to cake ratio was uneven but again that was likely due to the enormousness of the cake.

Wouldn't recommend this carrot cake, which is a shame as really liked the place and everything else we ordered was yum! I have since tried their red velvet cup cakes and they are amaze-a-balls so don't let the disappointing carrot cake put you off.





Hey Sugar -  3.5 stars ***/*



I'm a bit of a traditionalist and wasn't convinced carrot cake could successfully make the transition to cupcake, but my reservations we offset by this little delight.

On balance this is a pretty, generously frosted cupcake underpinned by a lovely moist carrot cake, with lots of real carrot flecks.It also had a little frosting carrot topper, super cute!

The only downside for me was the light cake colour and the frosting was a little on the runny side not as firm as I would have liked, but a decent and enjoyable afternoon tea scooby snack nonetheless.







Costa Coffee - 2.5 Star*** 

A pretty average coffee chain carrot cake which is either improved or made worse depending on the day and the level of freshness.

On a good day the cake is fairly moist another day having sat on the cabinet a wee while to long it was dry and stiff around the edges. The frosting is decent enough and the size of slice was just right, the cake features walnuts and bits of carrot and a nice touch was the nut crust, but unfortunately not to my taste, made it over kill on the nut front for me.

There's just  nothing particularly remarkable about this cake...it's just a bit Meh!

Lime Tree Cafe - **** 4 stars

I'd heard tell that Lime Tree offer the best carrot cake in Dubai and with a reputation like that this cake had a lot to live upto.

The slice is on the large side, it's a whole lunch on it's own!  However, as it's moist and not not sweet so it's actually doable.
The cake has good combination of key ingredients apart from sultanas which were absent.

The colour is dark and the flavour is spicy and well balanced with little flecks of carrot throughout.

The frosting is dreamy - perfectly sweet, cream cheesy texture but could have done with another layer or the inner layer being a bit fatter to balance the cake to frosting ratio.

This cake is decorated with a little fruit which bares an unfortunate name that I always confuse with a rather nasty STD  - the fruit being Physalis  the other being Syphilis! I'd much prefer a marzipan carrot.

I do like the detail of a little sprinkle of icing sugar on the cake and plate though when served, class.

There is no denying this is a very good carrot cake, however is it worthy of the title 'The best carrot cake in Dubai' ...erm no, close but no cigar.

The American Hospital, post natal menu - * 1 Star

Ok I included this one for a laugh, but during my post delivery stay in hospital when carrot cake appeared in a tick box for my daily menu I couldn't resist!

And you know what, aside from the awful cling film squashed presentation it wasn't that bad, better in fact than some I've had in restaurants and cafes see below!








Caribou Coffee - Ibn Tutta Mall, ***/* 3.5 stars

Surprisingly good! Somewhat tiring of the challenge i'd set myself  I was about to pass up the chance to sample this carrot cake.  I'm so glad I 'forced' myself to give it a try as it's by far the best of the coffee chains.

It was a light, moist flavoursome cake with a scrummy cream cheese frosting that was ideally proportioned. The pièce de résistance was lots of lovely juicy sultanas and a precise scatter of walnuts, all in all a thoroughly good carrot cake!

The only down side was again like Gloria Jean that even though we were sitting in, the cake and coffee got served up in a paper cup and a polystyrene plate and plastic fork...it flattens the entire the experience for me I'm afraid so I've had to deduct half a star.





Coffee Bean MOE - * 1 Star

This cake was compact and moist, offering good nuttiness but had no sultanas.

The ratio of cake to frosting was  good, three layers in total of the right thickness. However, it was let down by the frosting being rather flavourless and synthetic.

This was not an exactly an offensive cake, it was a moderate effort but terribly bland and just wasn't interesting enough to warrant the calories!









Starbucks - Big Spinney's, Al Wasal Rd *** 3 stars

My hopes weren't that high but this carrot cake was actually good.

Starbucks seem to have made a big improvement in their food selections over the last year or so. Likely responding to competition by trying to move more towards an artisan feel for food, rather than Mac-starbucks which is where they where heading previously.

Decent enough cake this, firm texture, a tad on the dry side though and not especially generous on the fruit, nut or carrot fleck front.

However, the frosting was yummy and I particularly like that you got 4 layers of frosting nicely distributed throughout the cake which resulted in even fork fulls of cake and frosting. Indeed this was the only cake that gave 4 layers of frosting and I likely!!







The Ritz Carlton, Abu Dhabi,  0* Zero stars

I'm usually a massive fan of The Ritz cakes they do an awesome afternoon tea with amazing scones. However, after a recent trip to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi we were in need of some refreshments and stopped at the Ritz for their evening buffet, which was great aside from the terrible mini carrot cake on the desert section.

Neither the cake nor frosting tasted of anything at all and the cake was so dry it felt like I was chewing on a bath sponge! The carrot cake I had at the American hospital was much, much better, The Ritz should be ashamed!




Sophie's Cafe - Shoreline #8, The Palm ****/* 4.5 stars

Tucked away in the basement car park as part of the RIVA Beach club is Sophie's. It's a welcome addition for locals as it's convenient serving great healthy salads and fresh juices plus a selection of home-made artisan cakes and cookies.

It is a little on the expensive side though and it's an odd little location for such a nice café, but the food is really good quality and portions are generous.

The carrot is delicious, nearly everything I want from a carrot cake.

Luscious moist texture, lots of lovely walnuts and sultanas I'd even say they might add some other kind of dried fruit, I'm not sure but it works.

It has a delicate, yet confident mix of flavours with each mouthful offering something different from smoky cinnamon |& ginger to a gorgeous subtle whaft of citrus.

The frosting is just sweet enough, just cream cheesy enough and soft yet firm enough and the ratio balanced well to the cake proportions.

Juicy sultanas

I also loved that it feels very home made with wonky edges. Plus it's presented in glass cloche arranged on a table amongst the other cakes on staggered wooden plinths so the customer can get right up to the cake before you choose it, as opposed to having it behind the counter - nice touch I love.

Flecks of carrot

Yes this is my favourite carrot cake in Dubai so far, it even bested the legendary Lime Tree one.



However, my search will continue or I supposed what I should do is make a carrot cake myself, maybe then I could award myself  the crown of "Best carrot cake in Dubai!"....watch this space.














 

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We've had a baby

Yes it's true we are now 3!!

It may come as a bit of a surprise as I haven't posted anything about being pregnant over the last 10 months, my posts are often a few months behind anyway. But you see in the past we've sadly suffered a couple of miscarriages and well.....having those experiences makes you literally not want to count your chicken before it's hatched.

Because of this I was very anxious throughout this pregnancy I couldn't really relax, I took it one day at a time. I wasn't the typical confident newly pregnant woman, telling everyone, making plans and taking for granted everything would be OK. We didn't even tell close friends until 5 months, so I decided not to post anything about expecting a visit form the stork until our much longed for baby had finally arrived.

Our little bean came into the world on the 17th of March 2013 weighing 7.2lbs - he's healthy, perfect and we are absolutely over the moon! I had a great and quick 3 hour natural labour at The American Hospital Dubai, we were really pleased with the care and service level they gave.

Our life has transformed overnight, adjusting to life with a newborn can be quite a shock to the system, I write this with one had whilst breastfeeding baby with the other! The affect of the lack of sleep can't be explained unless you experience it - everyone tried to tell us but secretly we thought surely they're exaggerating....hahaha silly us!

Not sure how frequent posts will be over the coming weeks due to most days not even having time for a shower, but I'll do my best  as we have got some fun things coming up to write about.

For us now Dubai will always be the place where our biggest wish came true and gave us the happiest day of our lives.

XXXXXXX

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101 - The One & Only, The Palm

101 located @ The One and Only on The Palm, is officially my new favourite restaurant!!


Why? Because the setting is just beautiful, service excellent and the food is simply divine.

Located on the Palm at the less famous of the two, One & Only's, which is in itself an oxymoron.
101 is a decked, jetty restaurant jutting out into the sea - with a spectacular backdrop of Dubai Marina looking like a mini Manhattan.

We went in the evening, by road but you can get there by boat from it's sister hotel, Royal Mirage - The One & Only on Al Sufouh Rd. I'd recommend going to have drinks at the bar there first and arrive at 101 via boat, as this is definitely the type of venue one should arrive at by boat, unfortunately we didn't do this.

I was expecting it to be lovely, reminiscent of it's sister hotels and a previous favourite (yes - I'm fickle!) The One & Only - Beach bar & Grill. I was prepared for typical Dubai high end fair, very respectable but just not that surprising or exciting.

However, the menu at 101 is a revelation, Spanish influenced Seafood is the stable and my do they deliver. We were in for a proper treat as even though the venue feels very Dubai and flash the menu and food is dare I say it.....soulful and quirky - which is a somewhat uncommon duet in Dubai.

I'm super excited because it's not very often I've found a restaurant in Dubai, with a chef that tries to be characterful and unique and doesn't just default to the same old crowd pleasing ceaser's, steaks and sea bass.

You can choose between the tapas menu with all the traditional tapas favourites like meatballs, Calimari, Manchego cheese and surprises such as 'Mejillones gratinados' - Gratinated mussels with garlic butter and 'Berberechos al limón' - Cockles in lemon sauce. Cockles in Dubai who'd have thought it!

We ordered from the Al a catre menu, which has a dizzing amount of choice, most of which I wanted to order.

To start I opted for Sautéed baby spinach - 55Dhs, Chicken chorizo, pine nuts and Manchego cheese.

The photograph does not do the dish justice it was eye-rolling-in-back-of-head amazing. And I loved that it arrived fresh from the oven in it's cooking pot.

I followed with the Seafood ravioli with Prawns, mussels, calamari and lemon sauce - 145Dhs. Lushness in every bite, zingy, fresh, subtle lemonyness, cooked to perfection both the pasta and the seafood which often gets overcooked to rubber.

My male companion (note not my husband!) had Veal chop ‘a la Milanese’ - 190Dhs, Macaroni gratin, sage and capers.

Now,  'Milanese' is to my mind a fancy word for a schnitzel and it would never occur to me to order a schnitzel in a fancy restaurant unless in Germany. However, I have to admit it was excellent, tender with a flavoursome accompanying sauce.

There were so many gorgeous sounding dishes it was hard to choose -  I also could have gone for the Casareccia 150Dhs  - Lobster, coco beans, ‘bouillabaisse’ sauce and Provençal butter! Coco beans?! and lobster?!....really would have loved to have been brave and tried that...



What I'd love to try is their signature dish to share, Paella with squid ink and calamari 155 Dhs per person. So I'm now fantistising about a languishing late lunch there -  arriving by boat, dressed in some elegant Jackie-O inspired outfit and endlessly grazing on tapas, a shared Paella and supping cold cava whilst watching the sun set!

That's it.... I'm going off to book that very thing right this minute, I'll update this post upon my return and try to get better pics.





 

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Digital Photography Level 1 @ Gulf Photo Plus

As a Christmas gift my thoughtful husband bought me a course of photography classes since I've a fledgling interest in photography and since starting this blog I'd like to take better photos for you.

"Hooray!".... I hear you all rejoice! ;-)

Awesome Graffiti mural outside Gulf Photo Plus gallery  

My problem is I often have a vision in my mind of a picture I want to take, but unfortunately I don't have the technical knowledge to be able create it. We have a pretty OK digital camera a Sony DSLR we got as a wedding present, but due to lack of knowledge we aren't utilising it to it's functional capacity.

We could read the manual I suppose....but in all honestly who reads manuals!!!

GPP Gallery image from their website

Johan also has and interest in photography so enrolled us both on the Level 1 Digital Photography run by Gulf Photo Plus, as we thought it would be a cool thing to do together.

Gulf Photo Plus run lots of courses, workshops, free events, exhibitions and seminars with prominent international photographers.

The classes run from their Dubai Gallery/Studio on Alserkel Avenue in Al Qouz, this is somewhat of an odd location tucked behind Time Square mall, which is somewhat of an an odd mall.

The gallery is in an industrial compound which is quite hard to find, once you do however, you discover it's a small artisan mecca of urban galleries flanked by grafftti murals, who knew! The area itself seems to be trying to develop into and bohemian hub with the addition of the Ripe Organic market and Lime Tree Cafe at the nearby Courtyard.

Grumpy baby a subject for focus & lighting 

Gulf Photo Plus offer an array of courses with options to suit various levels and interests. The digital photography class we took ran over a weekend Friday and Sat, starting from 10am to 3pm.

Our lecturer's Toyna Colson, assisted by Musthafa were knowledgeable and kept a good momentum to the curriculum.

In level one you learn the basic foundations, understanding what all the programmes on our camera do and the fundaments of Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed which are the 3 cornerstones of photography.

Proper equipment care, focus and lighting are other key subjects on the agenda.

Tonya, managed our expectations that we wouldn't come away with portfolio of award winning photographs, what you do is simple experiments to practice fundamental skills.





Before you can get creative and progress to elements of composition you have to master the mathematics of photography, which to a novice is quite a lot to get your head around. Aperture is measure in F-stops, ISO in sensor sensitivity amount and shutter speed in fractions of seconds.

Each factor affects the outcome of the image and the difficult thing is each of the factors when changed directly affects the others, so you have to make a sum of your desired combination and figure out if it will work on the hoof. Not easy!

Learning about White balance

White balance is another key aspect where you determine what kind of colour you get. This is when you have to set the camera for types of light for example artificial, sunshine or clouds, you can also do manual adjustments to get the exact exposure tones required.

Correcting the White Balance!

Depth of field is studied in some detail as is the different ways to capture motion.

Experiments in Depth of Field

I also realised that my inability to take the kinds of photographs I want are mostly due to the limitations of my camera lens as well as my own lack of knowledge.

I had a few 'Eureka!' moments realising that no wonder I couldn't get the shots I wanted if I'm constantly in auto mode.


Plus, going 'back to school' with your husband is quite an interesting experience as we got competitive with one another and bickered about who was doing what right and wrong, it was funny.

Experiments in motion 

You get an home work assignment which you present and group critique the next day, so it's quite an intensive few days but that's good as you come away feeling like you've learned something.

The gallery/studio is a pleasant, practical and inspiring space as they have small exhibitions and you can peruse some of the amazing professional photography for sale. However, it's a bit stuck in the middle of no-where so can be difficult to get to and from if you haven't got a car as taxi's don't always know where it is either.


All in all this was an enjoyable and worthwhile 2 day course to give a structured underpinning of the more technical aspects of digital photography.

 All I need to do now is practice, practice, practice!

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Dhow trip to Musandam - Oman

Last Novemeber we spent a absolutely fantastic weekend on a Dhow cruise in Musamdam, which is in the neighbouring Sultanate of Oman. The Musandam peninsula is an enclave of Oman that juts out into the Strait of Hormuz and is famed for it's great diving and pristine fjords.

Our friend Hartty who goes annually, organised a great bunch of people for a weekend of sun, sea, diving, snorkelling and superb scenery. 

As we were a large group of 16 we booked a 75ft triple decked Dhow for exclusive use with Sheesa Beach this cost 14,000Dhs (approx £2,400) departing Thursday eve and coming back early Saturday eve.

Our cruise left from Dibba port in Oman, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from Dubai taking into account Thursday evening traffic. You'll also need your passoprt as you cross the U.A.E/Oman broader. 

After you set off, you sail about 3 hours along the Oman coast to Musandam where you moor for the night in a secluded fjord. 

Total cost including crew & catering was 1,000Dhs pp (£170) for non-divers and 1,400Dhs (£238) for divers inc x 4 dives. Each price includes x 2 nights stay, breakfast, lunch, dinner, water and soft drinks. You can also take your own alcoholic drinks, snacks and other food you may want.

Considering the price of a nice dinner out in Dubai, the whole cruise is really good value for a brilliant weekend away experience.

This way to the shower

This particular Dhow was brand new, literally we were it's forth voyage and it had all mod cons A/C, in room showers and a communal flushing toilet.

However the Air con generator was very noisy, in addition our cabin was on top of the engine so when I lay in my bunk my whole body completely vibrated.




This mean't I couldn't sleep in the cabin so we opted for al fresco slumber on deck, which was amazing in itself.

Johan enjoying a misty morning swim

Falling asleep watching shooting stars and being gently rocked by the motion of the ocean, then waking to a misty mountain vista, perfect!

The food was OK, obviously as you're on a boat it's not going to be nuevo cuisine as they have to cater for generic tastes, so it was basic stodge food.

Typical breakfast is coffee, fruit, cereal, juice, toast and eggs .

Lunch, was fresh salads, potatoes, rice, bread, 2 hot choices like curry or fish.

Similar for dinner with hearty lasagne or grilled shrimp, whilst for dessert we got apple pie and ice cream.










The crew and our dive instructor were fantastic throughout, as such on top of the trip costs we left a big tip for them.

Fresh clams!

In particular, our twenty something instructor Dillon who is mature beyond his years, a consummate dive master and all round lovely guy. His passion for diving and marine preservation was infectious, he's like a real life Merman.

Morning dive briefing 

The divers got in two dives per day, the first day wasn't great visibility but the second was excellent.

Top deck Yoga

Those not diving can instead, snorkel, kayak, swim, sunbathe, read, fish, snooze, Yoga - literally whatever you fancy it's very relaxed.

The girls off Kayaking 

At dusk a few of us set off in the small boat fishing, we chased shoals of barracudas but didn't get so much as a bite.

Glamorous fishing darlings!

Instead we settled on watching the amazing sunset whilst supping ice cold beers.

The next morning the divers headed off early, and as the boat moved location to meet them we were followed by a playful pod of dolphins.

As I discovered, frolicking dolphins are quite difficult to photograph!

The only snap I managed to get - shan't wait on David Attenborough calling!

Then once moored a shoal of rays passed by, the snorkelling was amazing, beautiful coral, Parrot fish, Eels, Nemo-Clown fish  and even Turtles were spotted.

One infamous sea creature, marked by it's absence from our trip was a Shark sighting of any variety. Apparently, there are hardly any Sharks left in these waters due to excessive over fishing.

We eventually did see the sharks as we returned to Dibba port, however the Sharks were all dead and lined up on the harbour ready to trade. Officially, Shark fishing is illegal or at least quanity controlled here, however as it's poorly policed the black market thrives driven by the Far Eastern demand for Shark fins.

I couldn't get photos so these are from the investigation by The National

Shark fin soup is a delicacy in the Far East, selling for US$150 (550Dhs) a bowl. 

A kilo of shark fins sells for upwards of 300 Dhs approx £60 and goes on to fetch almost six times that amount at the Hong Kong

markets. 

Demand drives a worldwide black-market trade in sharks, with up to 100 million killed each year. 


No species is safe, hammer heads, grey reef sharks, lemon sharks, carpet sharks, even the majestic Whale shark the largest fish in existence is indiscriminately fished for it's fins.




Most, including Whale sharks and Hammerheads are caught so young that they haven't even had chance to reproduce, thus depleting long term stocks further. 

For further reading on the subject see The National's article and some organisations trying to stop over fishing of sharks in the Arabian seas include - Shark Watch Arabia, Shark Quest Arabia, or check out this film.

Witnessing this first hand was the only down of the whole trip, although good in away as it drew our attention to the scale at which this is happening everyday. 

On a happier note, we'd  thoroughly recommend a Dhow trip to Musandam and there are lots of options for Dhow cruises. You don't have to hire a whole Dhow exclusively like we did, if you're a couple or a smaller group you can join a pre-organised trip and if you don't want to stay on-board overnight you can just do a day cruise which runs from 11am-6pm.  

We were really pleased with the pricing, staff and service so can recommend going with http://sheesabeach.com/ - which will upset other 'Dhow cruise companies' (you know who you are!!), who keep relentlessly spamming our blog comments!

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