Gender-inclusive Carrot Cake

You may have seen my recent post about my distaste for women in the media who reinforce phallocentric gender stereotypes through an affected over-excitement for cakes. That is of course not to say that I have anything against cakes per se: indeed, the process of lovingly labouring to create, bake and decorate a cake to be enjoyed by the masses is at the heart of any good Marxist’s home economy. All members of Thee Faction enjoy their cake-making, and Babyface in particular has been described as a bit of a master baker in his time. It just so happens, that on this occasion, the female of the band made this lovely carrot cake, and Babyface did the washing up.

Ingredients ¹

• 12½ oz carrots, grated
• 2 oz pecans, chopped
• 4 oz self-raising wholemeal flour
• 4 oz plain wholemeal flour
• 3 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 8 fl oz vegetable oil
• 6 oz soft brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup

For the icing:

• 7 oz mascapone cheese
• 2 oz sifted icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• decorations of your choice

These quantities make a 9” round cake.

• Sieve together the self-raising flour and the plain flour with the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and bicarbonate of soda. (Tip the bran bits left in the sieve into the mixture.)
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, eggs, and syrup. (Heat the spoon first and the syrup will slide off easily.
• Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until it’s nice and smooth. Stir in the carrots and pecans.
• Tip the mixture into a greased, lined tin and cook at 160oC for an hour, or until cooked.
• For the topping, mix the mascapone, icing sugar, and vanilla essence until smooth.
• Allow the cake to cool and then add the topping. Decorate in a manner condusive to equality for all. Here, I’ve chosen halved pecans.

¹ Loathe as I am to dictate measurements, accuracy of proportion is of course key to the success of a good cake. In this case, I have reclaimed ‘Imperial’ measurements from the Imperialist classes for the use of this system-bashing cake.

First published 22/08/2010 on www.theefaction.org