April 25, 2010

Carrot Cake



Carrot cake seems like such a springtime food, doesn't it? A million of these pseudo-healthy desserts pop up around Easter, just as bunnies start hopping around our backyard.
We used a recipe from an ancient cookbook... it's obviously well-loved, because it has no front cover, back cover, table of contents... but the recipe pages are all still intact (although some are starting to tear out). We think that it is the Five Roses: A Guide to Good Cooking (1967?) book, by Elizabeth Driver, which is described on Amazon as a must-have for vintage cookbook collections. So, this carrot cake recipe can be describe as an oldie but a goodie!

  • Click on the photo to enlarge!
  • Note: we halved the recipe.
  • We were SO proud of our decorating creativity! We cut up a real carrot to lay on top of the icing, and used the tips of celery stalks for the leafy greens.
Cream Cheese Frosting (from the same book)
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup soft butter or margarine
1 package (113 g) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
  • Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add vanilla (we always add a little extra).
  • Beat in icing sugar gradually until desired consistency is achieved.
  • Ice your cake!
Mixing for 5 minutes was a workout for Lisa's arms.
Look at that bright orange batter!
The cake, uniced. Transfer to platter before icing.
The icing should be pretty thick.
We were SO proud of the decorations!
Cake time!

No comments: