Carrot Cake

So M has been harping on my lack of posts in this blog, so I decided it was time to change that! It's been quite a busy senior year, and with tomorrow being the last day, I should have lots of free time to help M out with the baking (and the eating!).

The end of anything is cause for celebration- and party festivities! Having had my senior recital for violin this past weekend, I baked a carrot cake to end the day on a sweet note. If you're looking for an easy, yummy, memorable cake to make for that occasion, read on:

Carrot Cake

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups shredded carrot

*1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

*1 cup raisins (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Bake the cake!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs together. (tip: stir in the eggs one at a time to make cake more fluffy! I'm not sure why this works, but mom says so, and my stomach believes it!)

Add in and mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Shred the carrot(s) to fill 3 cups, and add to mixture.

--You can add the optional walnuts and/or raisins; I didn't this time, but can say from experience that the raisins add another pleasant sweetness to the cake.

Bake for an hour.

Make the frosting!

Mix well the cream cheese, melted butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar; you may want to use an egg beater if it makes it a less tiring process.

Frost after cake cools. (You may want to save some frosting if you want to do more decorations)

Another fun, easy way to take the cake to another level is to decorate! Besides icing, you can always use food coloring to color the icing. I wanted to pipe little carrots on to the cake, and guess what? All you need is a sandwich bag to pipe it on!

To make the orange, you need one drop red food coloring and two drops yellow- and mix well. To make the green stem of the carrot, add as much green as you want to another small amount of frosting. To pipe it on, spoon the frosting into a corner of a clean sandwich bag, and cut a small hole in the tip of the bag (or cut a small corner off). Squeeze to get the right amount of pressure, and you have your own piping device!

Enjoy!

Linked to Sweet as Sugar Cookies, The Sweet Details ,Mangia Mondays , Make Ahead Meals