Carrot Cake

We planted way too many carrots to consume at Scott's house, so last night we harvested a bunch and then made delicious carrot cake! We found a great recipe online.

Scott picking a carrot from his garden

Nate and I with bunches of the very sweet variety - Chantenay

Scott washing the carrots

The recipe, from allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13" pan.
2. Bake in a 350 degree 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 out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
3. Frost the cooled cake.
   
   

Mini carrot muffins!

Finally... a golden carrot cake, ready to be iced!

Because of time, we opted for buying cream cheese icing instead of making it from scratch.

Also, we decided to make some into a cake pan and some into little and big muffin tins.

TIPS:

~the oil can be substituted with applesauce with little consequence, except a more healthier cake

~the cap on a bottle of vanilla is exactly a teaspoon, and most recipes call for 1 (or increments of) teaspoon

~grow carrots near onions, leeks, rosemary, or sage to keep the carrot fly away. And as the book title suggests, carrots grow well next to tomatoes (Carrots Love Tomatoes, Louise Riotte).