Carrot Cake

Last summer I spent 6 months working at a resort in a remote island in Northern British Columbia, where I baked the breakfast pastries and generally wished I wasn’t trapped on an island for 25 day stretches.

There was however a few amazing people that I met up there, one of them was a girl named Kelsi. She was witty and sassy and had one of the biggest laughs of anyone I have ever met. She ended up leaving early, feeling the need to get off the rock. She did however, replace herself with her cousin Caitlin. Caitlin has the same sass, the same big heart an eerily similar huge laugh. She now lives a couple blocks away from me and she has become a great friend of mine.

So imagine my excitement a couple months ago when I was invited to her family birthday dinner. More sass? More crazy laughs? I promised to bring cake, and I was in. She asked for

This all coincided with the photo shoot I did for the Order a Cake page on this web site so I thought I would hit two birds with one stone and make a pretty cake to bring to the dinner.

When Caitlin came to pick me up on the way she came in to ogle at the the cuteness of the set up and then, slightly concerned, asked where the carrot cake was. Oh, I said calmly, it’s the three tiered wedding cake.

I’m a keener, it’s true.

BUT, the cake was a great success and I’ve been invited back for dinner since, which is great. Because they’re family dinners involve gay men singing Beyonce, bagpipes and a lot of bourbon. And, of course, a room full of the loudest laughs I’ve ever heard.

I didn’t end up posting about that cake at the time, but Jordan asked for breakfast foods the other day and apparently carrot cake counts (?) so I thought I’d bust out this recipe again. And when he brought some into work and got seriously into the good books of his boss! I love happy endings.

Carrot Cake

2 cups Sugar

1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil

4 Eggs

2 cups All Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 tbsp Vanilla

3 cups Grated Carrots

Preheat oven to 325F

Butter and flour a bundt pan, or 3 8 inch round pans.

Mix oil and sugar

Stir in your eggs.

Add in the carrots and hazelnuts, if using.

Sift in your dry ingredients and carefully fold them in, being sure not to overmix.

Pour into your prepared pan and bake until an inserted skewer comes out with only a few moist crumbs, about 45 minutes.

Flip out of the pan and allow to cool completely.

Icing

8oz Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup Butter, softened

3 cups Icing Sugar

Beat together butter and sugar,

Add in cream cheese until just combined

(Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of this part!)

Now ice it how you like, be it a simple bundt cake or a 3 layer wedding cake.