What do you get if you combine this (photo above) with this…
And this…
Give up?
Ta-da! A 3 layer Carrot Cake! Which was made possible thanks to my daughter hand-grating 4 cups of carrots. 🙂
Here's the recipe:
Carrot Cake
Slightly modified from Maida Heatter's Great Book of American Desserts
1 cup raisins
1 pound carrots to make 4 cups shredded, firmly packed
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar*, firmly packed
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
5 1/2 ounces walnuts, cut into medium-small pieces
Cream Cheese Icing
1 Plastic Moose
1 Small Tree
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease & flour three 9-inch cake pans.
Place the raisins in a vegetable steamer over shallow water in a saucepan and steam for 10 minutes. Uncover and set aside.
Grate the carrots. Measure and set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cocoa, and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the vanilla, both sugars, (*next time I make this cake I might use 2 cups of granulated sugar and no brown sugar at all – it gave the cake a slight molasses-y flavor that I didn’t love) and oil, and mix until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed only until combined. Stir in the carrots, raisins, and nuts.
Divide the batter evenly among the three pans and use a spatula to even out the batter. Bake the pans for 35 to 40 minutes or until the tops just spring back when gently pressed with a fingertip and the cakes begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and let stand 2-3 minutes in the pans on a cooling rack. Run a small knife around the perimeter of the cake and invert the cakes onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. It is not necessary to remove the parchment from the bottoms of the cakes at this time.
Brush any stray crumbs from the sides of the cakes and transfer the cakes to the freezer, unwrapped, for at least an hour, or until cakes are firm enough to handle. If you wish to freeze the cakes longer, wrap the frozen layers in plastic wrap and return to the freezer until you are ready to frost the cake. Do not thaw the layers before icing.
Frost with Cream Cheese frosting. Honestly, my favorite “recipe” for that is just to blend 8 0z of cream cheese into store-bought cream cheese frosting. For this three layer cake, I used 16 oz of cream cheese with 2 little tubs of the frosting. (Had a bit left over, but better than having not enough.)
Add Moose & Tree and refrigerate overnight.
Tasty!
Oh, and speaking of Moose…
This mama & baby showed up right outside my dining room window this morning. It's very startling to look up from your coffee to see Moose nibbling on your trees! 🙂
~ k