A Good Night

Tonight Dave made a delicious pot of chili, we watched Harry Potter, and we celebrated Brian's (Dave's brother) birthday with a yummy carrot cake. What a great way to spend a cold winter night. Any night involving Dave cooking supper and Harry Potter is a good night.

I have been trying a lot of Paula Deen recipes lately, because she's a true southern cook. Lots of her recipes are ones I've seen in the old country church cookbooks that line my book shelves. My favorite kind of cooking is true old-fashioned southern style.

In my day I have made many, many, many cakes. But for one reason or another, maybe because it's not my favorite, I have never made a carrot cake. I compared recipes for carrot cake from three cookbooks last night, one of those cookbooks being the new Paula Deen cookbook I got for Christmas from my mom.

I decided tonight to whip up my first carrot cake using Paula's recipe in honor of Brian's birthday. First let me say, I LOVE MY FOOD PROCESSOR! Shredding carrots for carrot cake or shredding cheese for, well, anything takes merely seconds! Also this cake was a breeze because you can just use a large spoon to stir the batter together and you only need to use your mixer for the icing. Super fast and easy!

Sitting here before bed, I am not even feeling that guilty about eating cake tonight. Let me explain why. Carrot cake is inherently healthier than other cakes because it has CARROTS in it and lots of them. The recipe also calls for oil (I used Canola) instead of butter or shortening. Hello, healthy! And in the icing I used Neufatchel instead of cream cheese which has 1/3 less fat and no one was the wiser. Next time I make this cake I'll experiment a little, replacing some of the regular flour with whole wheat and possibly trading some apple sauce for some oil.

The cake was delectable and so easy! In case you feel like baking a "healthy," easy, and delicious cake to enjoy for yourself, here's Paula's recipe:

Carrot Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups grated/shredded carrots
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add eggs and vegetable oil and mix well; add carrots and pecans. Pour into three 8-inch or 9-inch round greased, floured pans. Bake for approximately 30 - 35 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove from pans, place on cooling rack sprayed with non-stick spray and allow to cool completely before icing.

Icing:
8 oz. package cream cheese
1 stick of butter, softened
1 box (16 oz.) powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Combine all ingredients except nuts and beat until fluffy. Stir in nuts. Frost cakes.

Quick note: Do not skimp on greasing and flouring the pans because these cakes WILL stick!
Give it whirl. If you like carrot cake, you will be in heaven.

Happy birthday, Brian!!!