Craving Carrot Cake

With the daffodils finally in full bloom, the grass turning green, and the days slowly starting to become warmer, I believe it’s safe to say that spring is finally here. It also reminds me that I haven’t baked anything in what feels like forever. I’m itching to go home and take over our kitchen. There are so many new recipes that I want to try and old ones I want to return to. Having to analyze a cookbook is only adding to my list of dishes to explore. The 1950 Charleston Receipts compiled by the Junior League was a happy misunderstanding between my mother and me. It turns out that we own two Junior League cookbooks. I was thinking of the one that had my favorite recipes for carrot cake and lemon squares in it, but I ended up with the other. Not that it’s a bad thing – I’m just left craving carrot cake. It’s such a wonderful, fresh spring cake that certainly lives up to the “Yum!” and “Good as they say!” penciled-in comments.

It is by far my favorite recipe and cake. We modified it slightly from the original, though I can't be too sure on just what we changed. I believe there used to be ½ - 1 cup pecans in the icing and we cut down on the oil and sugar. I will definitely look it up when I go home, which means that I will also have to bake it for no other reason than to have my cake and eat it too. While I love trying new recipes, there are some that are tried and true and will always feature in my cooking and my family. This is one of them and I encourage you to the point of just being short of pushing the ingredients on you to go ahead and give this cake a whirl. I promise that you won't be disappointed - just watch out for flying bits of grated carrots and add the icing sugar gradually.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 ¼ cups oil

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

Instructions:

1. Mix sugar, oil, and eggs together.
2. In a separate bowl, sift flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon together.
3. Add to egg mixture in three parts. Stir vigorously.
4. Mix carrots with a little flour and fold into batter.
5. Bake in a slightly oiled pan at 350° for 55-60 minutes. 
6. Cool and ice. Keep in refrigerator. 
7. Can be made as cupcakes - adjust baking time to 25-30 minutes.

Ingredients (icing):

4 ounces butter

8 ounces cream cheese

1 box (1lb) icing sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:

1. Have butter and cream cheese at room temperature. Cream together using electric beater.
2. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy.
3. Spread on cake.