Carrot Cake for Every Occasion!

Carrot cake is one of the essentials on any Holiday in my family. I am always asked at some point in the year to make a carrot cake. This is the same recipe that I have been using for many years. The circle of pecans on top is my favorite way to decorate the cake though. It does not have a smooth and uniform icing. It is rigid, imperfect, and delicious. I think that is one of my favorite things about this cake. It never looks "Pretty," but it always tastes good. It doesn't matter how many times I try, or angles I use, I can never get the circle of pecans perfectly centered on the cake. In fact, the cake itself is never centered. Without fail every time I bake this, one of the cakes tries to fall apart on me. it is uneven and rigid and so easy to make. I guess the point I'm trying to make is: cooking can be aesthetically beautiful, but it can also be beautiful because it brings people together no matter what it looks like. It matters what it tastes like, and I believe this cake tastes pretty good! I will continue to bake this cake as long as I am asked if it means I will be making my family happy. The rich cream cheese frosting is the perfect topper to the sweet and spongey carrot cake.

You will need:

~ 4 eggs

~ 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

~ 2 cups white sugar

~ 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

~ 2 cups all-purpose flour

~ 2 teaspoons of baking soda

~ 1/2 teaspoon of salt

~ 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

~ as many grated carrots as you desire

~ 2 cups of chopped pecans

~ 1/2 cup of butter, softened

~ 8 oz. of cream cheese, softened

~ 4 cups of powdered sugar

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 F°. I bake this in any 2 circular pans I can fin din the cabinet, greased with butter and floured. Using a stand mixer or whisk, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. I put all my dry ingredients through a sieve to make sure there are no clumps and all the ingredients are mixed well. Stir in the carrots. Fold in 2 cups of the pecans. Pour into your greased and floured pans. Bake 55 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then put onto a wire rack and cool completely. To make the icing, mix the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a stand mixer; or you could be more traditional and used a whisk and great willpower (that's too much of an arm workout for me). Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in the chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake. Finally, eat your delicious cake!