the Sunday Special - Carrot Cake

I'm still juicing away. Mostly carrots. And of course, that means more pulp. The carrot "patties" haven't been perfected yet, but I thought I'd try a carrot cake this time. I had a couple events last weekend that were potluck style and figured that was a good excuse for cake. As always, I used a recipe mostly as a guideline and then just had fun with it.

Here's a link to the recipe I found --> carrot cake.
And below is what I did.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• plain yogurt - about 1 cup (I had added a pear & a nectarine to it so the fruit went into the recipe too)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 1/2 cups of carrot (and a little celery, spinach, and who know what) pulp

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• yogurt - maybe a couple tablespoons (same kind as above)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 9 inch cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, yogurt, white sugar, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Gradually mix the 2 bowls together. Stir in carrots. (Using a mixer to add in the carrot pulp was crucial because it was so dense.) Pour half into each prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. While the cake is baking, make the frosting. In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, yogurt, confectioners' sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. I set it in the frig to set up a bit. I didn't have time to let the cake cool so I stuck one of the pans in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes. I didn't remove it from the pan. I frosted the top of the cake and out the door it went. It was still slightly warm when it arrived at the party. 

 I took the second cake to another party the next day. That time I cut the cake up into bite size pieces so it was easy to just grab one and go, plus I didn't need to bring any utensils with me.

Check out the plate! It is so fitting. A bunny in a watering can with a bunch of carrots on the ground beside him.

This was actually the very first time that I can remember ever making carrot cake and it turned out delicious! Seriously. There are quite a few people who could vouch for me. =)