Carrot Cake

Well it is Easter time. And what do people like at Easter time?? Carrot cake! And it is one of three kinds of cake I can actually get Alex to eat. Well I saw a photo of a cake sculpted out of pound cake in the shape of a carrot with orange jelly beans decorating it to make it look like a carrot. So I told Alex about it. He told me to go for it, only he wanted carrot cake, not pound cake. I pondered this in my head for a couple of days and finally decided I would do it. Why not?? Whats the worst thing that could happen? The cake looks awful and I have a huge bag of orange jelly beans in the house instead of on a cake? I was willing to take the risk. After all.....I am trying to expand my horizons into the realm of baking!! I know I tell people I suck and baking, and for the most part I do. But that doesn't mean I cannot nor do not want to do it. I just don't do it often. So here is my "Challenge" for the week!

It starts with a basic carrot cake recipe.

2c all purpose flour
2t baking soda
1/2t salt
1t cinnamon
1//2t cardamon (optional)
4 eggs
2/3c brown sugar
1c white sugar
2/3c yogurt
1/2c vegetable oil
1-2c shredded carrots

Preheat oven to 350. Line, oil, and flour a 9x13 pan.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl.

In a small bowl beat eggs. Add in sugar, brown sugar, yogurt, and oil. Mix well into dry ingredients. Mix in carrots. Transfer to baking dish. Bake 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

See, not so daunting so far! You can do it. Keep pushing on!!

The next step, after letting it cool completely is to get it onto a large cutting board. I practiced drawing carrot shapes, glorified triangles, onto paper before taking my knife and lightly making the same shapes I had practiced. It really wasn't all that difficult. I has room on paper for 3 large carrots, but in the pan I only had room for 2. Once I got those cut out then I used the scraps to make more triangles. I was able to use the scrap cake in the middle of the two large carrots to make a medium shaped one. Then I used the scraps on the outer edge to make some baby carrots. Once you get the skinny triangles cut, you need to round off the edges some to make it less triangular and more....well....carrot.

And if you have gotten this far, your worse part is over! Whew! It's all patience labor now. LOL! I had a tub of vanilla frosting in the pantry and used that. I had considered making my own cream cheese frosting or I suppose buying cream cheese frosting and using that since it is more traditional with carrot cake. I added 3-4 drops of red food coloring and about 13 drops of yellow food coloring to the frosting and mixed well. I did not want a bright orange frosting so it would contrast with the jelly beans. But it is your cake, so use whatever shade of orange you prefer! Then using a cake spatula or butter knife, spread frosting on long sides, top and upper side. The tip is where I had trouble. The cake is flimsy and didn't want to hold up while I was frosting. I also found if I frosted the sides first and then frosted the top it worked better for me to have a place to hold and keep steady while frosting.

You have now officially baked, cut, and frosted your first carrot. This is a proud moment. Or at least it was for me! I was dancing around the kitchen like an idiot because I finished a carrot! Then I look over and there are  FOUR MORE WAITING! Well at least I knew what I was doing I suppose!

Now for the jelly beans! This is the tedious part. They need to be arranged in rows and looking pretty. It was pretty simple. The problems arose when I had more room for a jelly bean and no jelly bean would fit. So you just have to use your own judgment.

Gorgeous! Talk about a boost of self confidence! I felt like a true cake artist! Okay....maybe that was pushing it a little. But when it is just you and your family and your family is willing to indulge your fantasies, you can be.....Carrie Vincent!! (lets see who gets that!)

So I used green twizzlers for my carrot top. I was originally looking for green sour straws and you would not believe how hard it was to find anything green like that! The only thing I could find were single green fruit roll-ups. So I suggest looking for twizzlers or sour straws. I cut the twizzler in half and then cut one half in half and the other half in 3/4. I wanted a long piece, a small piece, and a couple in between sizes. And since I bought some green fruit roll-up I cut a small strip off and used to bind the 4 pieces of twizzler together. Then using a small paring knife I make a small hole as a starter for the twizzlers to work themselves into. It worked out pretty well!

I did find on the small baby carrots that it was more difficult to get the greenery into the cake than in the larger pieces. So be careful.

But how awesome! Makes for a nice party trick. I was quite pleased with myself. I gave one baby carrot to one neighbor and two carrots to another neighbor. I will say that I think I went a little light on the frosting and I wish I had gone thicker. When you take a bit with the jelly beans it wasn't all that wonderful. I think because the jelly beans were orange flavored. And when I scraped off the jelly beans I was left with very little frosting. So if you do it....keep in mind the jelly beans are more for decorative flair than taste. So Happy Easter to all!!