Difficulty: Easy
Deliciousness: 4 out of 5 slices
Carrot cake like your mom made it, this spiced cake is both sweet and rich! It will make you want a big glass of cold milk. Add the cream cheese frosting and you’ve got a perfect cake. This cake’s a personal favorite of my Grandpa, who requests it for his birthday cake every single year. Even though it’s really filling, I bet you’ll find room for a second slice.
Mom’s have a way of making everything look easy. This is a perfect example of something I’ve seen made a hundred times, and therefore thought, it would be a cake walk. My main cake struggle this week was that I don’t own a food processor. After scraping my finger on the metal cheese grater, I’ve added this fancy gadget to our growing wedding registry. I ended up finding something good on Netflix and plunking down on the couch with carrots, a big bowl, and taking turns with my fiance who is better with sharp objects than I am. Eventually, I got the necessary amount, but unless you like monotonous physical tasks, it’s not very fun.
The rest of the cake went pretty smoothly. It’s a simple recipe, basically, you combine the wet and combine the dry ingredients until you just combine everything. Easy Peasy! I got worried because as I kept adding the dry ingredients and the batter became thicker and thicker. My electric mixer protested-groaning and struggling to mix but I stuck to the recipe. When I added the carrots, their moisture, correct the consistency fo the batter. I decided to leave all the nuts out since I’m not sure about people’s preferences and allergies.
The cake smelled so good while it was baking, the spices mixing with the smell of fresh carrots made my apartment smell fantastic! This week I shared my cake with some very talented Biology TA’s. I was happy to do it but also sad that I had to bake it in a rectangular pan that was easier to transport. It may look like a boring frosted rectangle of cake but it tasted great! My friend Dhyan liked it so much that he could not retain himself from eating both of his slices before I could snap a pic. While I wish I had gotten more pictures of people enjoying it, when I reflect on what cake, and food in general means to me, the experience of food is more important than an Instagram moment. Bon appetit!
The Year of the Cake 