Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is my Dad's absolute favorite cake flavor, but he's kinda persnickety about it. The boxed ones are a no-go...and the ones that taste like spice cake, uh- uh. So, finding a recipe that he approved of was quite a task.

A friend of ours brought over her version of carrot cake one night, and it was a winner. So naturally, we had to have the recipe, and this has been one of our favorites for a long time now.

You'll need:

1 1/2c. sugar

1c. oil

3 eggs

2c. flour

1 1/2tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2tsp. salt

1/4tsp. nutmeg

3c. shredded carrots

Mix all the ingredients together except the carrots using a hand mixer. Once all these are incorporated, stir in the carrots by hand. Pour the batter into a greased and floured baking pan, or two 8-in round cake pans. Bake at 350* for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let it cool.

While the cake is sitting, go ahead and make the frosting. Obviously, this cake calls for a cream cheese frosting, and unfortunately for you all, I don't use a recipe. But, I can give you a basic idea.

I use 1 block of cream cheese, and throw in a little milk, a little vanilla, and I add powdered sugar until the consistency is slightly thick but still spreadable, and it tastes good.  Yeah....sorry 'bout that. That's how I cook most of the time...

All that's left now is the assembly. You could get fancy and really 'decorate' the cake, but I just poured the frosting over the cake still in the pan, and sprinkled it with cinnamon.

And there you have it! A full serving of vegetables too! ;)

Happy Cooking!

-G