Carrot Cake

Tomorrow we're going over to our friends' house for a BBQ where there will be lots of food, fun, and cornhole to be enjoyed. These friends are the people we play poker with every Wednesday night, and they are fantastic. I try to bring cupcakes as often as I can, and therefore am bringing dessert tomorrow. The obvious choice? Carrot Cake.

I'm not a big carrot cake person. I like the cake, it's the cream cheese frosting that I'm not fond of. But Andy looooves carrot cake. It comes shortly after me, Fable, music, and bandanna wearing. I made some carrot cake cupcakes for poker a while back, and surprisingly actually really liked them! So all you carrot cake skeptics should try this, it's glorious. Recipe slightly adapted from here

Cake

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts
  
• 1/2 cup (8 ounces) canned crushed pineapple in juice, drained
• 1 cup raisins, soaked in water for 15 minutes, and drained
• 1 cup finely chopped carrots. (I just used a crappy food processor)
  

Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat to 350 and grease up to 8" pans. Wisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl.


In a different, smaller bowl, beat together the eggs, brown sugar, and veggie oil. Pour the wet mix into the dry and mix well. Fold in the walnuts, carrots, raisins and pineapple. Pour the delicious smelling mix into the cake pans and pop 'em in the oven for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Stand in the kitchen and deeply inhale the wonderful smell that is fresh-baked spiced glory.



Mix all the frosting ingredients together and beat them until you want to dip your finger in and taste it. Add more or less powdered sugar depending on the consistency you want. I'm just using it to frost, not pipe, so the set recipe worked fine for me. Add a little more powdered sugar if you want a stiffer frosting.





Andy and I wanted to use my new Americolor Gel Food Dyes, so we made some fondant carrots. I used this recipe, it's fantastic and easy and works great!

I'm sure this cake will be a hit, if not solely for the carrots on top that remind me of the carrot cake Andy gets in our favorite coffee shop back home. Plus, after hours of swimming and playing cornhole, how could you not dig into a slice of cake?

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and a few Raisins Cookies

Friday it was about as hot as the surface of the sun in Farmington, and wretchedly humid. But did I turn on the AC and hang out with my Kindle? No, I baked cupcakes. (Granted, Andy deemed them "muffins" because I hadn't put frosting on them when he dug in.) When I declared my doings on Facebook, my Aunt Lynn, who I've actually never met, told me she was making cookies, delicious cookies; she was kind enough to send me the recipe.

Since it's slightly cooler out today, I figured I'd try my hand at the cookies that Aunt Lynn tells me are fantastic for breakfast as well as dessert. (Seriously, how have I never met a woman who makes cookies for breakfast!?)

Her recipe was a copy cat of Teaism's Salty Oatmeal Cookies. I've never heard of Teaism, but it sounds like a pretty happenin' place, desserts and tea? I'm there! Even though I have no idea where they are located. Minor Issue. The recipe my aunt send me was recreated by DCist here.

Here's my take on this scrumptious cookie, that I assure you, I will have for breakfast tomorrow. That is, if there are any left!


3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups Quaker Oats
2 scant handfulls of raisins
2 overflowing fist fulls of chocolate chips

(PS can we please take a moment to admire my new measuring cups? Little stacking dolls that MEASURE THINGS!)

Slice up some cold butter and whip it up with mixer. I used a handmixer because I'm a poor college student who isn't lucky enough to own a Kitchen Aid mixer. I have a Proctor-Silex I bought at Renny's after attempting to whip butter with a fork in a square tupperware container last semester.

Isn't butter glorious? If I didn't have more self control I'd probably have licked that beater. Don't worry, I didn't. Or are you more worried that I'd even fathom just eating butter? Because on rare occasions, it happens.

Add both the brown sugar and the plain ol' white sugar along with the baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and mix until it looks like tiny clumps. Time for eggs and vanilla! Mix 'em in until they are well combined. For the record, I cracked both eggs one handed. Not at once, but I'm sure I could learn that trick if I had man hands.
















Slowly add the flour, but don't overmix, it'll make your cookies tough. And while normally being a Tough Cookie is a good thing, it's not as fantastic when you're eating said cookie. Now give into your desire to lick the beaters. You're done with them. When you've polished off all the dough on your beaters fold in the oatmeal and chocolate chips and raisins.

Doesn't the Quaker Oat Man creep you out? Ever since that episode of Rugrats where Chuckie's fear of The Man on the Oatmeal Box is revealed, I've gotten the heebiejeebies when I look at the box too. He's just smiling all tightlipped like he's holding back some sort of maniacal laughter. Not okay. Not peaceful. Not Quaker-like. But I would love to have his hat.

Toss the dough in the fridge for about an hour until it's cold. Sneak "small" pieces of it to taste-test. A girl's gotta make sure her dough is chilling properly! Preheat to 375 and drop hefty tablespoons of soon-to-be cookie onto a cookie sheet. And when I say "hefty tablespoons" I mean use your tablespoon to scrape out giant balls of oatmealy goodness. Sprinkle the tops of these lil' delights with some coarse Kosher salt and toss 'em in the oven for 13-16 minutes or until the edges start to turn that pretty perfect-cookie brown. Let 'em cool and devour 'em!