Carrot Cake

My goal when cooking and baking is to make things taste good, regardless of how the food actually ends up looking. Sometimes I'm lucky and I achieve good tastes and good looks, but that isn't always the case. I'm proud to say that bad tastes are rarely an issue, but I have to admit that all my dishes aren't worthy of Bon Appetit covers! This is most likely because I have absolutely no training and I constantly find myself trying new things. But that's what I like about cooking, and that's why I keep on keeping on.

I had some time to kill on Saturday - well I could have killed it by doing laundry; or vacuuming the dust jack rabbits* in our bedroom; or scrubbing the toilets; but when faced with the option of baking carrot cake with cream-cheese icing or cleaning the toilets - what would you choose? Exactly. Carrot cake is a classic in my opinion, and it's easy to make into cupcakes decorated with cute little frosted carrots, but I didn't have the time or the patience for those things. I wanted a cake that was quick, tasty and easily split - Brad refused to let me take it all to work with me! I don't blame him, either, because the cinnamon in the batter made the house smell absolutely glorious. So while next time I'll do small things, such as bake it not quite as long (hot, hot, hot oven), and make it into cupcakes with pink cream-cheese icing (cute, no?) this is a recipe worth keeping.

Carrot Cake III
Allrecipes
Printer-friendly recipe

Cake:
4 eggs
1 1/4 C vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 C grated carrots
1 C chopped pecans

Icing:
1/2 C butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 C confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C chopped pecans

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350* F (175* C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 tsp vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To make frosting: In a medium bowl combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

* Dust bunnies? Oh, no. Ours are way too big. Embarassingly big.