My intent was to actually cook a lot this summer with the food that I grew in my tiny little garden, including a whole bunch of carrots I planted. But I adopted a ginormous tomato plant at the beginning of the spring and since then it has taken over a whole corner of my garden, stunting the growth of all the carrots with it. In desperation I yanked the few remaining out of the ground to see if these babies yielded any root that I could cook with. To my disappointment I only found these three little gems and decided to make the most of their little lives and incorporate them into a delicious carrot cake.

To whoever else out there growing carrots, please don’t forget to bake your carrots in a carrot cake. It is way more delicious than just eating them raw. You can’t go wrong with a cup of coffee, a slice of cake and a porch in the morning during the end days of summer..

And of course you can’t make a carrot cake without cream cheese frosting. Duh. I used a recipe from a book called “The Bride & Groom First & Forever Cookbook (I know what a name right?). Jeff and I got this cookbook seven-plus years ago as a wedding present. I actually reference this book quite often it’s full of tons of good recipes and beautiful photographs.

So here’s the goods:

Ingredients:

Cake:
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups corn oil
1 1/2 cups grated raw carrots (1-2 large carrots)
2 4oz jars pureed baby food
4 eggs

Frosting:
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter
3 cups confectioners sugar sifted

Preperation

Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2-9 inch round cake pans.
2. Sift the flour together with the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
3. In another bowl, combine the sugar, eggs and oil and mix thoroughly.
4. Put dry ingredients in stand mixer with paddle on, add sugar, egg, and oil mix slowly making sure to mix in all ingredients. Lastly add the shredded carrots and the jars of pureed carrot.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on rack before frosting.

Frosting:
1. Cream butter and cream cheese at room temperature in mixer with paddle on.
2. Slowly add confectioners sugar until all ingredients are incorporated.