A Baking Frenzy!!!!

So, I went on a tear yesterday and decided to cook AND bake.  I really haven’t done much cooking since I got divorced..mostly because I didn’t HAVE to anymore.  I always hated cooking when I was married, even though I’m a pretty good cook.  But I loved to bake, and still do.

Anyway, I went all out yesterday and did a big dinner for the kids.  Good, old-fashioned comfort food:  Meatloaf (I made 2 of them…my kids are big eaters), mashed potatoes (Yukon Gold taters..yum!), corn, green beans, and for dessert? Well I couldn’t decide between bread pudding & carrot cake, so I made both!

The meatloaf came out fantastico, as usual.  A simple recipe..no fancy-pants ingredients.  The bread pudding was just ok…I think I need to tweak the recipe a little.  And the carrot cake?  AMAZING, if I do say so myself.  Wanna see?  Here we go….

First, I had to grate 2 cups of carrots:

Bunny Luv! Awesome Cali carrots!

Ugh…my arm was killin’ me after:

There has to be a better way...

Then I had to chop the walnuts…

This was easier than the carrots...

Then I mixed all the stuff together in my mighty Kitchen Aid mixer.  I got custody of said mixer in the divorce. Yay, me!  Oh, and you can also see my cool  red Cuisinart coffeemaker. My son gave it to me for Christmas  2 years ago. The fact that it’s lasted 2 years is a miracle (I make  a LOT of coffee) and a testament to its greatness.  I did break the original red carafe, and the replacement, as you can see, is white.  Oh, well…it’s what’s INSIDE that counts.  But, I digress….

Let the mixing commence:

What would I do without you, oh mighty KitchenAid?

I poured the batter into two 9″ foil pans.  I always use foil pans for baking layer cakes:

Yes, I have Formica counter tops. It's SO retro, but still fugly.

Then, I popped the pans in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  Five minutes after I did so, I realized that I forgot to add the raisins to the batter.  HORRORS!!!  I open the oven, throw a handful of raisins into each pan, stir a little, and pray the cake won’t fall.  My prayers must have worked because, 45 minutes later, this is what emerged from the oven:

Perfecto! Foil pans. You can't go wrong.

While the layers were cooling, I busted out my ancient Sunbeam hand mixer and proceeded to create the tangy-sweet cream cheese frosting that no carrot cake should be without.  Philly cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar and pure vanilla extract..I won’t use imitation. Ever.  Doesn’t it look sinfully delish?

So good, it should be illegal.

I frosted the layers, added some chopped walnuts and grated carrots on top, and THIS is what I ended up with!

Say goodbye to the diet!

Yup. It was a big hit.  The BEST carrot cake I’ve ever tasted.  My kids can’t stop raving about it.  Not too sweet, just  moist, dense and oh, so rich. Here’s what it looked like on the inside:

EAT ME!

This recipe is a keeper.  If you’d like to try it, click my page titled  “Food, Glorious Food!”  You won’t regret it!