Is today only Tuesday? It sure feels like a Thursday. I think I have accomplished more in the last 2 days than I did all last week. Then again, maybe if I had accomplished more last week I wouldn't be rushing around this week.
The girls and I have been putting together baskets for their teachers. We have spent the last two days running around gathering ingredients and baking, mini carrot cakes and fudge. Oh, and Borders gift cards. They have to have something to read while they induce a sugar coma.
Moving right along.
This carrot cake recipe is one that I have been working on for awhile. A few years ago while working for a mortgage company in CA I made a wonderful friend, Monica, whose sister makes the best carrot cake I had ever tasted. Since moving away from Lucy and her cake of carrot-y goodness I have tried numerous recipes, most of them pitiful replicas that came nowhere near hers. This time I think I may have gotten it.
Carrot Cake
Cake Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 cups shredded carrots
1cup vegetable oil
8 oz crushed pineapple, drained well
3/4 cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
4. Add in eggs, carrots, oil, pineapple, raisins and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
5. Pour into pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center come out clean.
6. To make the frosting: cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
7. Cool cake and frost.
8. Eat copious amounts.
Okay a few side notes. As you can see from the above picture I did not use a 9 x 13 inch pan. I used two Wilton mini-bundt pans. Each has 6 baking cups, so I have a total of 12 mini-cakes. I kept the temperature the same but cut my baking time to about 25 minutes. I began checking them after 20 minutes, I had one pan filled with a bit more batter so they of course took slightly longer.
You can definitely add nuts in, 1 cup of walnuts added in with the wet ingredients work well. You can also add in coconut, 1 cup added in with the wet ingredients. Tim hates nuts and I hate coconut, so that's where we stand on that.
Tim thinks mine need more frosting. He prefers the frosting taste in every bite, I am more of a purist and want mostly cake. Either way they are delicious. The cake itself is moist, the raisins give it a slight crunch that the addition of nuts would also give and the pineapple gives it a bit of oomph.
There are currently 4 left in my kitchen and they are calling my name. I think that means I need to go upstairs fast, before my willpower starts lacking.
