A Vegetable right?

By popular demand…I am sharing one of my best cake recipes.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

As many people know, I love to cook & bake in my free time. Cooking dinner after a long day of work, not so much. However,  cooking & baking to share with family and friends is a different story. As much fun as the cooking and sharing is the food shopping. Sendik’s, Glorioso’s, Costco and Bay View/ West Allis farmers markets are my favorites.

Another treasure is Sunday morning breakfast with homemade: hot cinnamon rolls, frittatas, broken egg panini’s or waffles, berries and cream. Sunday breakfast is the best because it is the only possible day of the week for a slow morning coffee, conversation, laugh and hot meal start to the day. Guess I have become a foodie of sorts.

This Carrot Cake is one of my family’s favorites for all occasions or non-occasions. We justify this deliciousness by declaring it as the last vegetable in our meal.

The recipe for this 9×9 square double layer cake, goes something like this…

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cup of vegetable oil

3 cups of white sugar

4 tsp vanilla extract

4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp baking soda

4 cups shredded carrots

2 cups flaked coconut

2 cups chopped walnuts

16 ounce crushed pineapple

2 cups raisins

My favorite (John) method for making this cake is using the biggest mixing bowl and wooden spoon I own to mix the batter. It is the most fun cake batter to make because of this classic mixing method.

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour two 9×9 square pans.
• In your biggest mixing bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.
• On top of the dry mixed ingredients add eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla, mix very well with your wooden spoon.
• Next, add shredded carrots, coconut, walnuts, pineapple and raisins.
• With a heavy whisk or wooden spoon, mix all ingredients together very well.
• Pour into floured square pans then bake at 350 degrees for 1 hours or until the toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool well before frosting.

Frosting:

To make the frosting you will definitely need a mixer. A stand mixer is best.

Ingredients:

8 cups of powdered sugar

4- 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup (2-sticks) of sweat cream unsalted butter, room temperature

6 tsp of vanilla extract

Method:

• Cream butter and cream cheese together until soft.
• Add powder sugar slowly.
• When all combine add vanilla.
• Mix on medium speed for 5 minutes.

Assemble the cakes by adding the cream cheese filling, frost the all sides of the cake. I like to freeze my layer cakes for up to an hour before I frost them. Decorate the top or side with additional chopped walnuts.

This is one of hundreds of techniques I learned  from my Uncle Joe, a retired baker/business owner.  He was the first “Cake Boss” in Kenosha Wisconsin, long before New Jersey’s  Buddy.

Enjoy this recipe and share this cake with your family or friends. It is a vegetable right?

Tutti Mangia!