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Carrot Cake

It's almost November [2002] & OlyWa has been socked in for several days. I'm not complaining! I appreciate our year-round green & try never to complain about our wet weather. Nobody should complain this fall after the gorgeous sunny warm summer we had. We need rain -- not that it's started raining, it's just grey. It's perfect weather for cooking (one of my favorite ways to heat the house in winter). Today is Sunday so there's football (my favorite background noise) all day & I am quite content to be inside.

I doubt it's seasonally correct, but I make it through the winter on carrots. Carrot Soup & Carrot Cake. Even the color (orange is my favorite) is warm! The hardest part about both recipes is grating the carrots. In other words, they're both easy recipes. I like to do them both together & save time.

ingredients

• 3 cups carrots, shredded
• 1 cup pineapple, diced
• 1/2 cup raisins, currants or chopped nuts (optional)
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• frosting
• 1 to 1 1/2 hours (30 minutes actual work time)
• Makes 2 loaves -- serves 6-8, easy

instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Blend in oil.

Beat in eggs.

Stir in pineapple, raisins or nuts, & carrots.

Pour batter into 2 well-buttered bread pans (9" loaves) & bake for 30 minutes or until fork comes out almost clean. I have found that it's best to undercook them a bit because they continue to cook as they cool & can become dry if you're not careful.

Let the loaves set in the pans for 5 minutes before removing them to cool. Allow the loaves to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 16 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat cream cheese until smooth.

Beat in sugar & vanilla (I use a vanilla -- or sometimes hazelnut -- syrup instead of vanilla extract).

Frost when the cakes are cool.