Senora Cenoura,

meet my friend Miss Ginger

Ginger and Carrot Rice Cake (Gluten Free)
Bolo de Arroz com Cenoura e Gengibre (Sem Glúten)

Why's it a rice cake? Guess. So in a few weeks i will have been in Brazil for four months, officially a third of a year. How is my Portuguese you ask? Am i participating in friendly banter with the locals at the corner bakery early each morning and making dentist appointments by phone? No. Strangely i am still worse off than a three year old when it comes to speaking. Writing, reading and listening i would say i am at about a third grade level (special ed third grade) but what can i say, i'm not enrolled in a class and during the weekdays my only Portuguese is television (oh wait, i meant soccer announcers) and eavesdropping on the quarblings of strangers at the gym. Of course there is the everyday use of comprehension, such as discovering that the bag of corn flour i purchased to make bread with was in fact actually corn starch (soup rather than dough alerted me to the findings). During my first week living in France i recall washing my clothes solely in fabric softener.

I've realized that i have to learn a word four and a half times before it makes any sense or has any chance of remaining inside my memory. When the word carrot (cenoura) finally stuck, i stammered, wait a minute, isn't that a Mrs.? no no, laughs my [cough] Portuguese professor (the reason i'm not enrolled in a class), that's senora, not cenoura. Eh? Where is the difference? I have a phobia of some day calling a madam a carrot. The phenomenon continues to plague me. After being asked how my parents were about six dozen times, it finally clicked that pais were parents. Oh they are fine. but wait a minute....parents are breads? the Portuguese word for bread in the multiple is pães, which sounds exactly like pais (to me). wonderful. Mrs. Carrot and my parents are breads. The list goes on, but my fingers do not. Plainly put, Portuguese is not an easy language. When Holly Golightly believed that Fred was in league with the butcher, she really didn't know what she was getting herself in to.

Carrots are fascinating creatures, i love to make cakes with them and have been known to proclaim on multiple occasions that the carrot cake is indeed my favorite. That is, if one can have a favorite cake (i don't think so because whenever i make cinnamon cake i say the same thing). So carrots; we were at the grocery store on sunday as usual (sunday is our grocery day as i am yet unable to drive and get myself anywhere on my own) and spending way too much time in the yogurt aisle as we always do. who doesn't love yogurt. H puts a yogurt in the cart, this was my favorite flavor when i was little. i look. carrot? carrot flavored yogurt? try and find me an American kid who pines after carrot flavored yogurt. how bizarre. but hey, i make cakes out of carrots so what's the difference? The yogurt escapade inspired the cake, which i have now made three times in the past two weeks to ensure to you dear readers that the recipe is perfectly flawless, so you better not screw it up.

The first and second cake (second cake was baked as cupcakes) were carrot and orange; cenoura e laranga, the orange came from the second ingredient in the carrot flavored yogurt which i couldn't taste in the yogurt. To make sure the essence came through in the cake, i used an entire orange peel (the whole thing). As i don't have a zester or food processor, i blended the carrot and orange peel together in a blender until the pieces were fine enough. The same recipe (minus the orange) was used to make the carrot ginger cake. Why ginger today? Because i'm making Japanese food tonight and have a monstrously heavy ginger root that tends to dry out if kept for too long. Ginger caipirinha is next. After tasting both the Salty preference stands at: Carrot Ginger!

You'll notice that there is no xanthan gum, gelatin, or what have you in the cake. I have yet to find xanthan gum in my grocery markets, so i have gone au-naturel. But lo and behold it rose, bound itself, and tastes good all without a mountainous list of ingredients. hmmmm.

carrot ginger/or orange rice cake- gluten free

ingredients:
1 cup white caster sugar (use 1/2 white 1/2 brown if you prefer), 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 large eggs, 1 cup white rice flour (wheat flour if you prefer), 1 large (extremely large, practically 2) tbsp tapioca flour or starch, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (only 1 if using wheat flour), 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 cup finely ground or grated carrot, peel of 1 orange finely ground or 1 tbsp finely ground fresh ginger.

Method:Beat sugar, oil and eggs together in a large bowl. Add the rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder to the same bowl (i don't mix the wets and drys separately in this recipe) and stir until evenly incorporated.

Chop one medium carrot into small pieces and place in the blender. Add one whole orange peel removed from the orange using a paring knife or add the freshly chopped ginger. Blend the two ingredients until they are finely ground. The final product should be about one cup.

Add carrot mixture to batter and stir until incorporated. Pour into a buttered and floured 8 in round or into about 10 cupcake tins (less for wheat flour, about 8).

Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes for a round and 10-15 minutes for cupcakes. All ovens vary in temperature (especially gas and electric) so watch them until they are dry in the middle.
(optional) Cream 8oz of cream cheese with 1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 tsp vanilla for a frosting.

Bolo de Arroz com Cenoura e Gengibre - Sem Glúten

Ingrédientes: 200 grama de açucar, 210 grama de óleo, 2 ovos grandes, 125 grama farinha de arroz (ou trigo), 7 grama de fermento em pó, 10 grama de farinha de mandioca (só para bolo de farinha de arroz), um pouco de sal, 1 colher de canella, 110 grama de cenoura ralada, 1 colher grande de gengimbre ralado ou casca de laranja inteira.

Método:
Combina açucar, óleo e ovos na uma tigela grande. Adiciona farinhas, fermento, canella e sal. Mistura bem.
Colocou cenoura e gengimbre/ou casca de laranga no um liquidificador. Ralado bem. Adiciona no bolo.

Cozinhe para vinte minuto a 250 graus.

May is nearing an end and it's becoming quite cold here. Winter mornings and chilly evening runs. It's funny how we think of South America only as a hot tropical local completely forgetting that there is a South Pole too. Inside the tropic of Capricorn by just 30 minutes; the Antarctic cold fronts that sweep in off of Argentina aren't pretty. It's starting to actually feel like winter, despite the fact that it is almost June. So maybe i'm getting used to things here. Maybe. Mrs. Carrot. Oh wait no, i still don't have a Kitchenaide mixer.