Let Them Eat Cake

The messier the kitchen, the better the chef.

How does one bake a cake? How does one bake anything at all? One follows instructions. Today I made carrot cake for my mother, who was having people over for coffee later in the evening. I looked up carrot cake and followed the recipe, and it turned out very nicely. There are plenty of carrot cake recipes floating about (I remember Natalie bringing a splendid carrot cake to class in the ninth grade--I should ask her for the recipe), and you may choose your own, but at least you'll have this one close at hand. You may try to recreate it at will. (And it has already been put through a series of taste tests--and passed!)

Grated carrots

Carrot Cake

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups melted butter
8 oz can crushed pineapple in juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups grated carrots
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 eggs

Grease baking pan. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Beat together butter and sugar. Add flour mixture, then pineapple and juice, carrots, nuts, and vanilla. When well-blended add eggs, beating after each egg. Bake 45-50 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit. (Though I must warn you, this recipe makes a lot of batter; enough to make two cakes even! Also, be sure to check your cake's texture during the last dash towards the finish line. I had to fiddle around with the baking times, but that could have been because I put two cakes in the oven, which my mother tells me I should not have done.)

The frosting was a mix of cream cheese and icing sugar. You'll have to ask my mother for the exact measurements, though I highly doubt there were any. She most likely threw it together after her own preference.