Carrot Cake - May 6, 2012

I like carrot cake. Mmmm. It's so good, and it has carrots in it, so it's got to be good for you, right? Right?! ;) My husband and I had a date night a while back and went to this restaurant in Madison that made this delicious carrot cake. We ordered a couple things off the dessert menu, and decided to take the carrot cake home to eat later that weekend. Well, it made it home, but didn't make it in the fridge. :) Since then, I've been meaning to make my own. I've never made a carrot cake before, so I thought, what the hey, and found a recipe and bought the ingredients...

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups shredded carrots

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (I didn't put walnuts in ours because we had a friend over that doesn't like nuts in baked goods... boo)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of one 13x9-inch pan or two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans with shortening; lightly flour. (I used two round pans with parchment paper cut to fit the bottom. It was very easy to pop out onto a cooling rack after baking this way.) In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended. (I, of course, used my fork mixing method.) Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla and the salt; beat on low speed 1 minute. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into pan(s). Bake 13x9-inch pan 40 to 45 minutes, round pans 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (You may have to bake longer. I had to bake about 5-7 minutes longer.) Cool rectangle in pan on cooling rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour. In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable. Frost 13x9-inch cake or fill and frost round layers with frosting. Store in refrigerator.

Husband Rating:

He said the frosting was amazing, but the cake tasted "eggy". I loved it. It was just what I needed at that time of night. Mmmmm. While it was cooling, our dog took it upon herself to taste it to make sure it was good enough for human consumption. I was able to salvage half of the one cake she took a bite of and the other one was fine, so I made a sort of lopsided tower. It didn't look too pretty, but it was still good.