Carrot Cake

I love how we kid ourselves.

My mother is very ill and, as a consequence of that illness, is averse to eating.  My grandmother, Goddess love her, put this recipe together for Mom thinking, no doubt, that it would be both pleasing and nutritionally dense.

She’s got it half right.

Truly, this is a glorious recipe.  The cake is heavy and satisfying and the frosting is sweet and light, but any hope one might have of gaining real nutritional benefit from the vegetables in the recipe is entirely negated by the fact that its base consists of two cups of sugar and a cup and a half of oil.

Seriously.

Start with the aforementioned two cups of sugar and a cup and a half of vegetable oil, add four eggs, and mix well.  Sift together 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon and salt, and 2 teaspoons of baking soda, then incorporate that into the sugar mixture (you may want to employ a stout wooden spoon for this; it’s a hearty batter that’s going to get heartier in a second).  To this, add in 3 cups of shredded carrots, a cup of shredded coconut, and 1/2 cup walnuts (more or less, depending on your preference.  I pounded them into tiny pieces, but you decide how big you want your bits to be.  I was also thinking, as I wrote this, that pecan pieces might be a lovely alternative to the walnuts…).

My grandmother’s recipe calls for baking the mix in a 9×13 pans at 350° for 45 minutes, but I baked 24 muffins and still had enough batter left over for a small cake.  I really didn’t pay much attention to the baking time (sorry about that!) but the toothpick test is reliable for this application.

The cream cheese frosting is the real reason that most of us eat carrot cake (it’s okay; you can admit it).  I monkeyed quite a bit with that part of the recipe, though I’m not sure I did it any real improvement.  My grandmother says to mix 1 3-ounce package of cream cheese with half a stick of butter and a teaspoon of vanilla, and add powdered sugar until it’s of spreading consistency.  I had an 8-ounce package of low-fat cream cheese and, since my math skills are abysmal on a good day, I winged it.  I put in a whole stick of butter (because 8 is more than 2×3, right?), a big blop of vanilla, a slightly bigger blop of whipping cream, and Goddess only knows how much powdered sugar.  My version came out more like icing than frosting, but it’s still exceedingly yummy.

I kid myself that it’s perfectly acceptable to eat this for breakfast, and the girls consider it a “healthy” after school snack.  Regardless of how healthy it may or may not be, it sure is tasty!

Enjoy!