what an awesome weekend. baking, a banquet, a good nap, a run on the back roads, a james bond video game for grant, a bit of sewing for me, and a pot of jam for us both. but most of all, there was cake. for the big banquet, we made classic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and marbled orange chocolate cake with sour cream chocolate frosting. both big hits, and both favorites of mine. and, i will be sharing the recipes with you. because it's what i love to do.
let's start with the carrot cake, since i can't get it off my mind. i love this recipe so much. it uses applesauce and pineapple and less sugar and oil.. quite possibly the key to top-notch carrot cake.
classic carrot cake
adapted from taste of home, found via my sister in law, ann
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. applesauce
2 8 oz. cans crushed pineapple, drained and reserve 2 T. of juice
2 cups shredded carrots
chopped walnuts, optional
1. drain pineapple and reserve 2 T. of juice, set aside
2. sift together dry ingredients and set aside
3. mix eggs, sugars, oil, applesauce and 2 T. pineapple juice
4. add the dry ingredients, then fold in pineapple and carrots (and nuts, if using)
5. pour in prepared 9x13 or 2 round cake pans, bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes
note: for a prettier finished product, try throwing the pineapple in a food processor or blender for a quick extra chop before it goes in the batter. that pineapple can get awfully chunky sometimes.
favorite cream cheese frosting
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 T. butter, softened
2 T. + 1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar
1. beat together first 4 ingredients, then mix in powdered sugar
2. frost over cooled carrot cake
well, it's tuesday. baking day! i'm off to the kitchen whip up something for grant's class tomorrow. he has snack duty again. (yay!) and i've already gone for a run today, so i'm going to have myself a guilt-free sample.
11 comments:
Oh, OH! Another carrot cake recipe. I adore carrot cake and will bookmark this one. : ) (btw, nice new blog look!)
Love carrot cake, too. Want to try that recipe for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Like the new look too - that's what I like about me feedly add on to google reader and it's preview thingy - I love to see the prettiness of each and every single blog.
Yum, yum. Thanks for being so kind to share this lovely recipe with us...did I saw yum?
Holy cow. That truly look spectacular. I'm dying to try this recipe. Maybe this weekend...
You mentioned that you were trying some new things with your camera that improved your photography. Care to divulge?
MMMMMMMM....Love carrot cake. Always looking for a perfect recipe.
yum, carrot cake is my recent fave! thanks for sharing -- i'm gonna make this!
Oh how I love carrot cake. It is one of those cakes that I will always try a new recipe for, even if I think I've already found my favorite. Thanks for sharing and GORGEOUS pictures!
YUM! your pics and recipes get more and more enticing every time.
There's some serious salivation goin' on here.
OMG! I just commented as Jeff!! OoOops! Sorry. :)
mmm. mmm. fabulous and so seasonally on the dot. am loving your newly updated site my dear. really great stuff, as usual.
this was DELICIOUS, thanks! I swapped out a half cup of flour for whole wheat flour and threw in an extra handful of carrots - it made it rise perfectly evenly! now I have a new go-to recipe for layer cakes :-)