Monday, August 29, 2011

Carrot Cake

My husband is a pretty picky eater.  In fact, until he was 19 he thought corndogs actually had corn in them, and he had never eaten a strawberry until our second date.  He is, however, slowly beginning to try foods he would never have even considered before, and just a few weeks ago discovered that he loves carrot cake. 

As soon as I heard this, it was my mission to find a great carrot cake recipe to make for him (which we both ended up sharing with our colleagues at school as well), so I went straight to the source, Gina, the person whose carrot cake he loved so much. 

She shared with me that this recipe originally came from a Southern Living cookbook, but also let me know that if she had to do it over again, she would modify a couple of things.  Therefore, I am only posting below the recipe I ended up using, which, thankfully, Jason loved.  The cake turned out to be moist and not too dense (but still substantial) and the frosting was just the perfect consistency and flavor to balance out the sweetness of the carrot and the perfect bite of flavor from the cinnamon.


Carrot Cake

Ingredients
2 cups shredded carrots
2 cups self-rising flour (The orignial recipe called for all-purpose, baking powder, baking soda, & salt, but I improvised and it was just fine.)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 small jars baby food carrots
4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1) Combine shredded carrots, flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
2) Stir in the baby food, eggs, oil, and vanilla, mixing well.
3) Pour batter into 3 greased 9-inch cake pans, or one 9x13-inch baking pan (I actually only had two large round pans that were the same size, so I used them, and it worked perfectly.).
4) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. (I actually ended up leaving the cake on the bottom rack in for about 35 min.  It wasn't solidified enough after only 30 min.)
5) Cool on a rack.  If removing cake from the pans, allow them to cool for 10 min., then remove to a cooling rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 (16 ounce) package OR 2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
1) With an electric mixer, combine cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2) Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy.

Frost cake and enjoy!

finished product





I am linking up this post with Recipe Sharing Monday at Jam Hands.  There are some fantastic-looking recipes I can't wait to try on her blog!

Jam Hands

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

YUM! That looks heavenly!