11/05/2025 – Welcome to my backyard city homestead

– recipe made with Carrot Pulp from juicing carrots –
serve with caramel apple bottom OR with lemon sauce poured over top

1+1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside.

* optional: ADD 2 CUPS CARROT PULP
to flour mixture. Gently fold in to make sure all carrot gets coated in flour. Set aside.

* hint: I’ve made this ginger cake several times WITHOUT carrots. They’re kind of the afterthought (trying to use up extra carrot pulp), so don’t hesitate to go ahead without them. I find that they do moisten the cake so much though, that it sure is worth adding them. If you don’t have carrot pulp, then shred some carrots. If you don’t have carrots, make it anyway – without them. It’s still GREAT.

With beaters, whip:
1 cup butter
add 1 cup sugar, beat in
add 3/4 cup molasses (I use blackstrap, but if that is too strong for you use a regular molasses)
add 4 eggs one at a time and beat in
add 1/2 cup milk

add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and beat with mixture. If you feel its a little too thick, add another 1/2 cup milk.
Bake in 350F oven, middle shelf, approximately 30-35 minutes.
Start testing at 25 minutes. When cake centre springs back to the touch, it should be done.
Serve warm or room temperature – doesn’t matter.

caramel apple carrot cake served upside down with vanilla yogurt

Caramel Apple variation:
Butter 9×13 baking dish, Slice up 2-3 apples and arrange slices around bottom of pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup+ brown sugar over top apples. Pour cake batter evenly over top apples.
Serve on plate upside down so the apples are on top.
Serve plain or with whipped cream or ice cream or vanilla yogurt (pictured).

Lemon Sauce variation:
Butter 9×13 baking dish. Pour cake batter evenly. You’ll be adding the lemon sauce after its baked.
Sauce:
1 cup white sugar mixed with 2 tsp cornstarch
1 scoop of butter about the size of an egg
1 cup water
Heat over medium heat stirring frequently as it thickens slightly.
When its a slightly thick and pourable texture add
the juice of one lemon
Remove from heat and stir well.

choose one of these two ways to serve lemon sauce. Life is full of tough decisions lol.
1. Cut cake and serve with some lemon sauce drizzled over top.
2. When cake is baked, poke holes with a fork all over the top, and drizzle the lemon sauce over, allowing it to soak in.

Regardless of which option you choose, you still have another choice.
Plate suggestions:
just a cake on a plate in all its moist gingery wonderfulness
OR with whipped cream
OR with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Warmly,
Cindy

– recipe made with Carrot Pulp from juicing carrots –
This recipe makes 18 muffins, but plan to double it so you can share with neighbours.

in these muffins I added some dehydrated blueberries for ‘raisins’

Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together dry ingredients and set aside:
2 cups whole wheat flour OR half unbleached flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

beat 3 eggs, add 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup oil (your choice)
set aside
* 1 cup raisins or chopped walnuts or combination (optional)

add to flour mixture:
2 cups grated carrots OR carrot pulp OR refreshed dehydrated carrots
gently fold carrots into flour mixture till evenly coated
If you’re adding raisins or nuts, right now would be a good time. Fold in.
* I generally add at least another cup of carrot pulp. If I add two additional cups, I add another egg and another tablespoon of oil as well.

Pour wet ingredients into flour-carrot mixture and gently fold in to moisten completely. If the batter is too stiff and you feel the need to add a little more milk, go ahead. Don’t over stir.

Line muffin tins with paper liners – makes approximately 18 muffins.
*tip: I lightly coat the muffin tin with oil and use the liners as well, as it makes it easier to peel off the liners later.

Bake 20-22 minutes at 350F. Test by gently touching the top of the muffin – when it bounces back to your finger, its done.
I let the muffins sit on the top of the stove for about 5 minutes to cool slightly before removing them to place onto rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Warmly,
Cindy

what’s the point?

In the beginning, pre-internet days, when I wanted to learn a new skill, I did it the old fashioned way. I asked. Problem was, it was kinda hard sometimes to find people who knew how to do what I wanted to learn. Sometimes I had to figure it out on my own using trial and error. That always took a long time, and was sometimes painful. Sure would have been simpler if I could have just ‘seen it done’, and what it was supposed to look like. You know, like some live youtube video or something. Wouldn’t that have blown or minds way back in the day? Wow. It’s so much easier to learn how to do things now. You can bet that whenever I found someone willing to share, I took advantage of their offer. And if there were classes offered in my area, I took them.
We read a lot and experimented a lot, and made a lotta mistakes, and learned a lot, and we’re still learning. We sure don’t regard ourselves as experts at anything we do. Just like you – we’re still trying to do the best we know how. In some areas, we just might be a little further along the road in is all.

I have a motto that I live by. It is a quote from Maya Angelou and it is stenciled in big black letters in my kitchen. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, DO better.” So simple. So straightforward. And so absolutely profound. Just DO better. Don’t beat yourself up over what you didn’t know before. Don’t live in a life of regrets. You did the best you knew how, but now you know better, and you can move forward. I love the principle taught in the quote.

My purpose with this blog site, is to make your journey a little easier than mine was by offering some short cuts, some hands on instruction, and maybe even some suggestions. Everyone who wants to, can achieve a new level of self sufficiency, and everything I teach can be (and should be) tailored to your own home and situation. There is no complete right way, and no complete wrong way. Just all sorts of ideas that might work for you and are worth trying out.

Whether you live in an apartment, a townhouse with a small yard, a home with a big yard, or a farm on the prairie – you can make it better than it is, and become more self sufficient in it. Here, we will touch on a little of this and that – from the kitchen to the laundry room to the garden out back, to the feelings that are intertwined with this kind of lifestyle, and probably several places in between. Kinda where the wind blows us I guess. We’ll see. This is a new experience for me too. Looking forward to it.

I’d love if you’d take the time to comment when you read a post. Let me know what you think about the thoughts shared therein, let me know your own personal tips and hints for doing better. We can learn from eacy other.

– Cindy

Day: 5 November 2025

Carrot Ginger Cake

– recipe made with Carrot Pulp from juicing carrots –
serve with caramel apple bottom OR with lemon sauce poured over top

Carrot Muffins

– recipe made with Carrot Pulp from juicing carrots – serve with caramel apple bottom OR with lemon sauce poured over top

– recipe made with Carrot Pulp from juicing carrots –
serve with caramel apple bottom OR with lemon sauce poured over top