Yesterday was the birthday of my favorite American-born eastern Euro friend, Sinziana. Since I didn't have the perfect present picked out, I thought I'd fall back on an old tradition--birthday cake. The pickiest of eaters, she won't eat most things with chocolate, anything with coconut besides Ranger cookies (see recipe), or, odd as it is, cooked ham or anything too "eggy". No German Chocolate, Italian Cream, or really, half the desserts that are among MY favorites. Just before I started to make a plain white cake dyed bright green and blue, I realized there was one flavor I had failed to consider: carrot! What eastern Euro isn't down with carrots?... or cabbage and sausage.
Now everybody's had a bad carrot cake in their life -- most definitely if you've bought the box. So I scoured the internet looking for a recipe that was similar to the best carrot cake I'd ever tried, which, FYI, is from Thunder Cloud Subs in Austin. This is what I came up with, and it was grrrreat!
The cake:
ADD IN ORDER GIVEN ---------
1/3 c Dk. Karo
1 c Sugar
1 c Dk. Brown sugar
4 x Eggs
1 1/2 c Veg. oil
1 ts Cinnamon
1/4 ts Cloves
1/4 ts Ginger
1/4 ts Nutmeg
3 c Raw carrots, grated fine
1 ts Vanilla
2 1/4 c Sifted flour
2 ts Baking soda
3/4 ts Salt
1 c Walnuts or Pecans, chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of three 8-inch cake pans with parchment, wax, or brown-bag paper: grease and flour.
Beat sugar, eggs, karo, and oil until light and fluffy: about 15 minutes on medium speed-- I grated the carrots during this. Add rest of ingredients in order given, sifting the soda and salt with the flour and mixing gently after sifted mixture is added. Pour into cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until cake is done in the middle via toothpick test or poking the top to see if the cake bounces back a little.
Immediately remove and place upside down on wire racks to let cool.
Super Fatty Cream Cheese Icing:
1 box powdered sugar
1 bar cream cheese (at room temp)
1 stick butter (at room temp)
1 TB. vanilla
Beat cream cheese until smooth and add slowly the box of powdered sugar. Add vanilla, then butter. Taste-test as much as desired.
Whew! Not so bad. No just stack the cakes on a serving plate with icing in between layers. Ice the rest and serve or decorate.
