Winter Foliage

Yes, more food. It's the summer of good eats. Yesterday was Sarah's birthday, and I was armed with fresh carrots from Tuesday's farm share pick-up. So a carrot cake was born.


I used my mom's recipe, that was someone else's before hers and someone else's before that. It's a great cake. It's really easy to make, particularly if you have all of the ingredients {I had to run out and pick up some walnuts, because we weren't going to have a carrot cake without nuts ~ what's a healthy cake without nuts?}.

Ingredients ::

~ 2 cups sugar {I used 1 cup sugar and a 1/2 cup brown sugar}
~ 3 eggs
~ 1 cup oil {I was being tricky and used 1/2 cup oil and a 1/2 cup buttermilk}
~ 2 cups flour {I used the full flour amount but also threw in a 1/4 cup of ground flax seeds}
~ 1.5 tsp salt
~ 2 tsp baking soda
~ 1 tsp cinnamon
~ 3 cups grated carrots
~ 1/2 cup chopped pecans {I used a little bit over a 1/2 cup of a walnuts}

Directions :: Mix sugar, eggs and oil together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until moistened. Pour into a greased bundt pan or 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

I wanted a layer cake, so I baked it in two 9? inch pans ~ it made for skinnier cakes, but they were just perfect for layering. Of course, I kept my eye on it and reduced the baking time accordingly.

But wait, there's more! I asked Sarah if she wanted frosting, because I know there are some family members that don't want frosting near their carrot cake. She did, but she didn't say explicitly that she wanted cream cheese frosting. So I went out on a limb and whipped up some coconut milk frosting for the first time. It was fantastic!

Ingredients ::

~ 1 can light coconut milk
~ 7.5 tsp flour
~ 1.5 cups butter
~ 1.5 cups powered sugar
~ 1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the coconut milk and flour in a saucepan. Bring it to a low simmer and continue whisking and simmering for about five minutes. Take it off the heat and let it cool completely {great time to go fiddle in the garden}.

In a mixer, whisk together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the coconut mixture and extract and continue to mix until your frosting is light and fluffy. It looks like the frosting may separate, but if you stick with it, everything will be fine. I put my mixer on a high speed and let it go for a minute or so. I don't really taste the coconut, but you could remedy that by adding coconut extract. This is similar in design to the cloudburst frosting. I like both because they are nice solid frostings that really hold their shape when spread on a cake.



Happy Birthday Sarah*