Adventure on the high seas

Now that most of the bruises I sustained from my recent holiday are slowly starting to dissipate, I can concentrate more on doing some cooking and less explaining as to why I have bruises on my legs. You are probably wondering what kind of vacation causes such misfortune; I can tell you now it wasn’t some sort of boot camp. I would never intentionally bring that sort of pain on myself. Let’s just say that the bruising resulted from a combination of overly spirited recreation and clumsy misadventure.

I didn’t go and seek out to get bruised but after a day of sea rafting, sea kayaking, golf and tennis, my muscles were more than aching, it felt like they were bleeding internally. It served as a reminder of how unfit I actually was and I came to the stark realisation that my eat cake; exercise later philosophy wasn’t very effective. Excessive baking and vacationing are both perilous undertakings, who would have thought?

All I know is that while we were being prepared for sea rafting, we were instructed to wear dry suits, life jackets and helmets. All of a sudden it dawned on me, this wasn’t a leisurely meander in the ocean where you put your feet up and people serve you nice drinks with little umbrellas in them. No. This was an all out aquatic assault through waves, paddling for your life; and paddle we did.

There were 5 of us in the raft plus the guide and our mission was to get this seemingly flimsy inflatable raft past where waves were breaking in order to catch waves in. Sounds fun, right? Well, before this entire wave-catching spree could take place, we were given a brief on safety precautions, a how-not-to-injure-yourself type talk from the guide. I was very excited, although I have to admit my excitement was tinged with a little trepidation. After all, the activity required helmets, this was no afternoon of croquet.

With our helmets safely fastened to our heads, paddles in hand we ventured out to sea to face the waves. To heighten my anxiety, G and I were up front, which meant that we would be facing the brunt of incoming waves. Isn’t this just dandy, the smallest one of the group and I am up front.

Steve, our intrepid guide also taught us to keep our hands on our paddles at all times so as not to injure anyone as we were thrown about in the raft. Well this tidbit of information must have escaped G's mind while we were violently thrown about on the first big wave we encountered and unfortunately the bar of his paddle found its way under my chin. I could feel the throbbing starting, but there was no time for mercy, we were about to find out what sea rafting was all about.

Facing the waves head on was quite a thrill and a challenge, as we paddled harder and harder, the waves kept on coming. It seemed to take forever just to get out back behind the waves and all I can say is that I used every ounce of breath I had in me and I was exhausted. However, for the amount of effort we exerted, the excitement of catching a wave was reward well worth it. It’s the unbeatable feeling of sitting atop a cresting wave feeling its force pushing you towards the shore. All you can do is sit and take it all in. By the end of our trip my bruise-count totaled to about 10 bruises, although some of those bruises did result from my inbuilt propensity for clumsiness. I think I inherited it from my dad.

I guess it's fairly obvious that this post has nothing to do with these Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches. I apologise now if anyone was waiting for the in-depth exposition on these cookies, but I promised at the beginning of the year that I would share this recipe that's all. What I can say about these cookies is that they are quite addictive even without its cream cheese filling. To be honest, I preferred the cookies unfilled as that the cream cheese filling becomes, well, a little too filling.

The batter is much wetter than cookie batter and creates a more cake like texture; the cookies are actually very soft and have a moist crumb. A cookie that is more like a cake is how I can best describe it. Just think of it as a cake in the shape of a cookie. Here is the recipe, enjoy!

Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches
makes about 13 sandwiches
taken from here



1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
110g unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 scant cup walnuts, slightly broken
1/3 cup raisins


FILLING
1 cup cream cheese
1 tbsp hopney

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 180°C. Butter 2 baking sheets.
Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in another bowl until pale and fluffy. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins; then add flour mixture to this and beat until just combined.
Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total.
Cool cookies on sheets for 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.
While cookies are baking, blend cream cheese and honey in a food processor until smooth.Sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between.