Tag Archive for: carrot cake

Not a trick Carrot Cake

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I used to think my mother was trying to trick me into eating vegetables when she would make carrot cake.  I also used think she was not being very sneaky since she called it carrot cake- clearly there were carrots in there.  So, of course I would scrape off the delicious cream cheese icing and not eat the carrot cake.  It wasn’t until actually recently that I ate carrot cake- the actual cake part, and it is freaking delicious.  Who knew!! And it turns out, my mom’s is the best- I might be biased but you can judge for yourself.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups cooking oil

3 cups grated carrots

4 eggs

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Sift first 6 ingredients into a bowl; stir in oil.  Add carrots and then eggs, one at a time.  Fold in nuts and bake at 300 for 45 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing

Mix with hand mixer 1 package (8oz) cream cheese at room temperature, 2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 stick butter softened and 1 box of powdered sugar. (It is still the best part of the cake!)

From the beach to the barn- two fun weddings!

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We went to two weddings this weekend, and maybe that is not a crazy thing, but one of them was in Charleston and the other was in Arkansas.  It felt a little crazy to me.  The first wedding was on Saturday morning out on Sullivan’s Island.  My very dear friend Kendall married a fantastic guy named Robert.  The wedding was at his family’s beach house, and it was so wonderful.  Kendall looked so beautiful, and it was an intimate, close ceremony right on the beach with a super fun reception that followed back up at the house.  Now that I am writing this blog, I feel it is my obligation to really focus on the cake at weddings- it is my lot in life.

Kendall and Robert’s cake was awesome!  The top layer was carrot cake, the second layer was chocolate, and the bottom was vanilla.  All three were delicious, light, and creamy.   Happy and warm in the sun, full of cake and surrounded by friends, it was very hard to leave, but on to the next.  We dashed home to pack and then went out to the airport to catch our flight to Northwest Arkansas, where Corby’s cousin was getting married on Sunday afternoon.  The two weddings could not have been more different.  I knew everyone at Kendall’s wedding and knew no one at Samie and Kevin’s wedding.  Kendall and Robert were married on the beach, and Samie and Kevin were married up on a hilltop overlooking Fayetteville, AR, in a beautiful barn.  Kendall had cake- Samie had pie.

Now, despite the differences, both weddings were so much fun.  It was so great to meet all of Corby’s family and friends who had come into town for the wedding, and the barn was so beautiful.  Now the pie, or should I say pies, because there were five different kinds- chocolate pecan, strawberry, apple,   peanut butter, and mixed berry.  I am not kidding when I say that peanut butter pie was something special.  If you follow this blog at all, you might remember that I tried to make a peanut butter pie and failed miserably.  Well, this pie did not fail- it was so so so good.  I have never thought about having pie at a wedding, but it was genius.  It was a busy but fun weekend, and I am glad to be back in Charleston and so glad these two wonderful couples are married- congratulations to them both!  Also, don’t forget, you have until Friday to enter the Daisy Cake giveaway- just click the link and comment to enter https://thesouthwillrise.com/mothers-day-dasiy-cake-give-away/

Carrot Art, Carrot Ninja, Carrot Cake

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My wonderful 8-going-on-40-year-old son Walker has recently gone on another health kick.  Usually, he comes home from school and has an hour of downtime before any afternoon activities or before he does his homework.  He, of course, goes right to the refrigerator to get a snack which is typically lemonade and a bag of chips.  Well, now he has turned in the bag of chips for “long carrots” as he calls them (as opposed to the mini carrots that come already peeled).  I know he must love the taste of carrots, but I think he has more fun peeling the carrots and carving them up into different shapes before he eats them.  I came downstairs the other day to find carrot peeling all over the sink, counter and window behind the sink.  Exasperated, I asked him how he got peelings everywhere.  He replied that he just peels carrots so fast, like a ninja, that they fly all over the place and then proceeded to show me.  He is too funny, and it is impossible to get mad at him for carrot peelings all over the kitchen when he is a self-proclaimed carrot ninja.  He also has taken to cutting his carrots into pipes or different animals.  I googled “carrot art” today and am not sure whether or not I should show this to him as he will have me buy all the carrots in the store so he can try to make something similar.

So with all the carrots in my house now, I guess a carrot cake is necessary.  I looked up a bunch of carrot cake recipes, and surprisingly, a lot of them had pineapple or cranberry or some other type of fruit or nut.  I was just after a plain carrot cake with cream cheese icing (which makes everything better), and this seemed to be the best one.  Let me know if you have a better recipe!!

Ingredient for Carrot Cake:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

4 eggs

3 cups shredded carrots

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients

Add sugar, oil and eggs

Mix well

Add carrots, mix well

Bake at 350 for 1 hour

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Icing:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy

Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar

Store in the refrigerator after use

 

When in doubt, bake some Cuttaloosa Carrot Cupcakes

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“A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen” is a sweet, homegrown blog filled with amazing recipes that are easy to follow and produce ridiculously fine results. Let’s hear it for this one:

 

Cuttaloosa Carrot Cupcakes!

1 3/4 cups finely grated carrots
1 cup crushed, drained pineapple (save liquid)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts or pecans- optional
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup corn oil
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Mix above ingredients together till well mixed.
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix above ingredients together till well mixed, then add to carrot mixture mixing well. Divide into 3-8″ cake rounds that have been well greased or 18-24 well greased muffin tins.

Bake cake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or till knife comes out clean. 20 minutes for cupcakes.  Cool on rack for 10 minutes then remove from pan.

For the entire post and the butter cream icing for these beauties, click here to go to “A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen”