Cook.Sew.Grow.: Carrot Cake, Anyone?

I'll admit it, there were days when this would not have even tempted me.

I mean, it's dessert, but there's no chocolate. . . . what's the point in that? Humpf...but it's John's favorite, and it was his birthday, so I trudged off to make an un-chocolate dessert.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to make. And then something strange happened....I liked the smell coming from the oven. Could it be? Might I actually like this vegetable cake? I doubted it. The cake cooled and I made some cream cheese frosting to go with it. Then, being the good sport that I am, I ate some cake . . . you know, for the birthday boy. But not because I wanted to. This was a big sacrifice!

OH WOW! This cake is delicious! It's moist and sweet and just a little bit spicy.

I think you should make one too. Trust me, you'll like it!!!

Start by measuring out your ingredients:

Then grate your carrots... be careful not to get your nails or knuckles...it happens

and chop the walnuts...

Now that all of your ingredients are ready, preheat the oven and prepare the pans. {If you're not certain how to best prepare pans, they've been buttered, lined with paper, re-buttered and floured. I will do a whole post on that one day....I just don't know when :) }

Only one more step in preparing everything... sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt

Now - everythings ready to go....just mix it all up! Start with the eggs and butter.

Whip them on medium high (I use 4 or 5 on my Kitchen Aid) for about 2 minutes. Turn your mixer down to low and pour in the vanilla

And then the oil (the original recipe I used called for a whole cup of canola oil. I only had about 3/4 cup of canola so I topped off the cup with olive oil - it turned out a nicer consistency, so I decided to keep it).

Once that's all mixed up (It only takes a minute. Literally. One.), add in your sifted flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Stir until there are no more white powder streaks. You should have a beautiful smooth batter, like this

then add in the good stuff: carrots, walnuts and pineapple.

Blend that until there are no little clumps, then divide evenly between your pans.

Bake for about half an hour and it'll look like this.

Transfer to a wire wrack to cool.

Then frost it with cream cheese frosting (I am so sorry the pictures are dark. It was late at night when I was baking. Please imagine beautiful sunny backgrounds. Unless of course you're nocturnal like me, then these look great to you)