Easy and delicious carrot cake blondies for your Macmillan Coffee Morning
These blondies are a quieter take on carrot cake. All the familiar warmth is there – cinnamon, ginger, a whisper of nutmeg – but baked into a single tray with no layers, no icing and no stress. Just a handful of seasonal carrots, a swirl of cream cheese and a bake that feels quietly celebratory.
Want to be a Macmillan Coffee Morning Host?
The ingredients are unshowy – butter, sugar, flour, eggs – and the method is unfussy enough to pull together the night before. Once cooled and cut, they're easy to carry, easy to serve and easy to eat with one hand while holding a cuppa in the other.
Carrot cake blondies with cream cheese swirl
Equipment
20cm square baking tin
Baking paper
Mixing bowls
Whisk or electric hand mixer
Rubber spatula or spoon
Fine grater (for carrot and optional orange zest)
Small bowl and spoon/skewer for swirling
Ingredients
For the blondie base
150g unsalted butter, melted
150g light brown sugar
75g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp fine sea salt
160g plain flour
100g grated carrot (about 1 medium carrot, peeled and finely grated)
50g chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Zest of ½ an orange (optional but recommended)
For the cream cheese swirl
100g full-fat cream cheese
1 egg yolk
30g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170C fan (190C conventional) and line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and caster sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until glossy.
3. Stir in the spices, salt, and flour, mixing until just combined. Fold through the grated carrot, optional nuts, and orange zest.
4. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the cream cheese swirl ingredients until smooth.
5. Pour the blondie batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Dollop spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture over the surface and swirl gently with a knife or skewer for a marbled effect.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the edges are set and golden, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs (but not raw batter).
7. Allow to cool completely in the tin, then chill for 30 minutes before slicing into squares for clean edges.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
The new take-at-home drug that ‘could boost effectiveness of chemotherapy'
A pioneering new medicine could improve cancer treatment by enhancing the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Named KCL -HO-1i, the drug operates by dismantling a crucial defence mechanism employed by tumours to shield themselves from treatment. Initial trials conducted on mice demonstrated remarkable success, with the tablet enabling chemotherapy -resistant tumours to become responsive to therapy. Researchers are now hopeful for human trials, envisioning KCL-HO-1i as a "valuable companion drug" to chemotherapy. This could potentially spare patients from more aggressive interventions. While chemotherapy remains a cornerstone in treating various cancers by disrupting cell growth, its efficacy can be hampered in some individuals when the body's immune cells inadvertently form a protective barrier around tumours. These white blood cells, known as macrophages, produce a protein called heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which helps shield the tumour from the immune system and blocks the effects of chemotherapy. KCL-HO-1i, which has been created by experts at King's College London (KCL), targets this protein to make tumours more responsive to treatment. Professor James Arnold, head of tumour immunology group at the university, said: 'We discovered that these macrophages in cancer play a key role in blocking chemotherapy. 'By targeting the enzyme they produce using KCL-HO-1i, we were able to help beneficial immune cells and chemotherapy drugs become significantly more effective. 'In laboratory models, even chemotherapy-resistant tumours became responsive to treatment, which is a really exciting step forward.' The drug has been designed for patients to take at home as a tablet between chemotherapy sessions. Early tests on mice, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, found the drug made breast cancer tumours more responsive to different types of chemotherapy. Researchers are now hopeful that trials involving patients with breast cancer and other forms of the disease could begin within two years. James Spicer, a professor of experimental cancer medicine at KCL, said: 'Chemotherapy remains a key part of treatment for many patients with cancer, but too often it is not as effective or long-lasting as we might like. 'This research has identified a key reason for these limitations, and discovered a drug that we are keen to test in the clinic alongside established chemotherapy drugs.' Miraz Rahman, a professor of medicinal chemistry at KCL, added: 'If human trials are successful, KCL-HO-1i could become a valuable companion drug to existing cancer therapies – helping more patients to benefit from the treatments that are already available and reduce the need for more aggressive cancer therapies in the future.' The King's College London scientists have launched a spin-out company called Aethox Therapeutics. Tanya Hollands, research information manager at Cancer Research UK, which supported the study alongside funding from the Medical Research Council, said: 'Researchers are increasingly learning how to make better use of existing cancer treatments, whether it's using them differently or in combination with new medicines, like this work suggests. 'Using combination therapies can help bring improved treatment options to patients more quickly, safely and affordably, because some components of the treatment have already been tested and used in the clinic. 'While early stage, it's exciting to see this potential new way to disarm cancer's ability to avoid detection by the immune system with a new drug, while also boosting the effectiveness of chemotherapy, and we look forward to seeing how this work progresses.'
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
The ancient ritual that could help improve your sleep
An ancient ritual involving the forceful blowing of a conch shell could offer a surprising, non-invasive treatment for a widespread sleep disorder, according to new research. Known as shankh blowing, the practice involves a deep inhalation followed by a powerful exhalation into the spiral-shaped shell of a sea snail. Researchers suggest this technique could significantly improve sleep for individuals suffering from obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), potentially negating the need for cumbersome medical equipment. Obstructive sleep apnoea, which affects an estimated eight million people in the UK, occurs when the throat muscles relax and narrow during sleep, leading to symptoms such as loud snoring, choking noises, and frequent awakenings. The findings stem from a small trial conducted in India, involving 30 participants aged between 19 and 65, all diagnosed with OSA. For the trial, 16 people were provided with a traditional shankh used in yogic practices and trained in how to use it properly before taking it home, while the remaining 14 people were asked to carry out deep breathing exercises. Both groups were encouraged to practice for a minimum of 15 minutes five days a week. They were monitored during sleep and asked questions about sleep quality and how tired they felt during the day. After six months, the study found those who practised shankh blowing reported sleeping better and were 34 per cent less sleepy during the day. They also had higher levels of oxygen in the blood during the night and had four to five fewer apnoeas, where breathing stops during sleep, per hour on average. They also had higher levels of oxygen in their blood during the night. Dr Krishna K Sharma, of the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute in Jaipur, India, said: 'The way the shankh is blown is quite distinctive. 'It involves a deep inhalation followed by a forceful, sustained exhalation through tightly pursed lips. 'This action creates strong vibrations and airflow resistance, which likely strengthens the muscles of the upper airway, including the throat and soft palate, areas that often collapse during sleep in people with OSA. 'The shankh's unique spiralling structure may also contribute to specific acoustic and mechanical effects that further stimulate and tone these muscles.' Continuous positive airway pressure (Cpap) machines are the first line of treatment for OSA. They involve patients wearing a mask that blows pressurised air into the nose and throat while they sleep. However, they can be uncomfortable. Speaking of Cpap, Dr Sharma said: 'While effective, many patients find it uncomfortable and struggle to use it consistently.' He suggests shankh blowing could be a 'promising alternative'. 'Shankh blowing is a simple low-cost, breathing technique that could help improve sleep and reduce symptoms without the need for machines or medication,' Dr Sharma said. Researchers are now planning a larger trial involving several hospitals. Dr Sharma added: 'This next phase will allow us to validate and expand on our findings in a broader, more diverse population and assess how shankh blowing performs over longer periods. 'We also want to study how this practice affects airway muscle tone, oxygen levels and sleep in greater detail. 'We're particularly interested in comparing shankh blowing with standard treatments like Cpap, and in examining its potential help in more severe forms of OSA.' Reacting to the findings, Professor Sophia Schiza, head of the ERS group on sleep disordered breathing, based at the University of Crete, Greece, said: 'We know that OSA patients have poor quality of sleep, and higher risks of high blood pressure, strokes and heart disease. 'A proportion of patients experience sleepiness during the day. 'While Cpap and other treatments are available based on careful diagnosis of disease severity, there is still need for new treatments. 'This is an intriguing study that shows the ancient practice of shankh blowing could potentially offer an OSA treatment for selected patients by targeting muscles training. 'A larger study will help provide more evidence for this intervention which could be of benefit as a treatment option or in combination with other treatments in selected OSA patients.'
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
NHS ‘needs to do more to support autistic people'
Autistic people and those with ADHD are avoiding seeking health care as they can find waiting rooms 'unbearable', experts have said as they called for more to be done to support neurodivergent people navigate NHS services. The Society of Radiographers (SoR) said patients face a number of barriers when accessing care – from the way they can communicate with health workers to overstimulating diagnostic tools and waiting areas. It is also calling for more to be done to help staff who are neurodivergent, saying that some workers are being 'driven out' of the NHS. The SoR has called on the health service to introduce inclusive spaces, such as autism-friendly waiting rooms, and for better communication to make sure people's needs are being met. Ben Potts, a diagnostic radiographer who is researching the experiences of neurodivergent patients, said: ' Research has shown that 51% of autistic people find waiting rooms unbearable – they're too much of a sensory experience – that's compared with 8% of non-autistic people. 'Going into an MRI scanner, which makes a lot of noise, or into an X-ray examination room, where radiographers need to touch patients to position them accurately for the X-ray imaging, these are areas where there can be an extra layer of difficulty for autistic people.' Mr Potts said that even getting help in the first place can be difficult, especially if it involves a phone call. 'Some autistic people find phone calls very, very difficult. So they won't make the call,' he said. Dr Julie Woodley, a senior lecturer in radiography at the University of the West of England, said neurodivergent clinicians working in the NHS can also face difficulties. 'A lot of managers seem unaware of how to manage staff on the neurodiversity spectrum, so staff don't feel supported at all,' she said. 'Some people have said that they've got to the point where they're going to have to leave the NHS. They feel worn down by it all.' Dean Rogers, executive director of industrial strategy and member relations at the SoR, said: ' Hospitals can be stressful and intimidating places for anyone to visit or work. 'This can lead to poor communication, which contributes to increased patient risk and inefficient treatment. 'These risks and costs are amplified for patients and staff who are neurodivergent. 'There is encouraging research showing how cost-effective neurodiversity-sensitive changes can improve productivity and outcomes for all staff and patients. 'These include autism-friendly waiting areas, simplified systems and patient-experience videos.' The SoR said national guidelines to help patients and staff are 'urgently' needed. A spokesperson for NHS England said: 'All patients, including those with neurodiversity, deserve the best possible experience of NHS care – and we have rolled out mandatory training on learning disability and autism for all NHS staff. 'Our ADHD taskforce is also examining ways NHS services can be improved to reduce inequalities in care, and we have issued updated guidance to improve support for autistic people.'
