Carrot Cake

I am busy, busy, busy at work, and baking is one of my stress-busters, well, aside from mincing meat into tiny, miniscule bits when I'm pissed. So baking it was. What to bake? What to bake? After much trepidation, I summoned all my courage to bake a carrot cake. Whoa, a carrot cake?! Kaya ko ba 'yon?

I got the original recipe from Allrecipes, and it delivered! The cake was easy enough. However, as the cake was intended for guests, I felt that I need to ice it. I didn't think icing it would be difficult. Boy, was I W-R-O-N-G! In the first place, I couldn't find my icing tools. In the second place, cream cheese icing is way more difficult to spread than, say, buttercream icing. But I survived. Or should I say the cake survived. I wasn't planning on putting those fondant carrots (those are not orange fondant chillies, silly), but somehow, carrot cakes SHOULD have fondant carrots on top. They add nothing to the taste but certainly adds cheer, don't you think? I thought of buying those tiny baby carrots and putting them of top; it's just that the guests might not be prepared on biting a real, hard carrot when eating a cake and think of my cake unkindly. I digress. For the fondant carrots, I needed glycerine, which I don't have, so I just improvised with Caro syrup. I added a bit to confectioner's sugar, mixed it well till it became a firm ball, then added a few drops of food coloring (Ferna's egg yellow). As for the cake, here's the original recipe from Allrecipes.

Cake
4 eggs [I added another.]
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil [I used 3/4 cup of canola oil and 1/4 cup of butter.]
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans [I didn't add pecans.]

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. [I cooked it for and hour and left it inside till the oven cooled.]

Frosting

1. In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

It's a bit sweet for my taste, but as what Sharkteeth exclaimed, it's very "carrot-ty." Very moist yet firm, as carrot cakes should be. The cake as it is makes a good companion for coffee; with the icing, it's perfect to cap a meal. Of course, there are a few things I'd tweak* next time, but it's great and I declare myself victorious.

*Decrease the shortening to just 3/4 cup and use a ratio of 1:1 canola oil to butter.
*Decrease the sugar to 1 1/2 cups and use brown.
*Use more butter and cream cheese for frosting.
*Find those damned icing tools!