We had such a wonderful anniversary evening last night. When I got home from work, Lindi had made a teensy tiny version of our wedding cake. Look at that. It is a TINY CAKE. My life is so cool.

My parents had carrot cake at their wedding, and we had carrot cake at ours. I've also had it at more birthdays than I can count. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, mmmm.

After we ate our tiny cake, we went flea marketing and bought a vintage typewriter (we've been looking for one for a really long time, and there it was!) and then went out to eat Thai food. It was a lovely evening.

This is, I kid you not, the best carrot cake you will ever eat. It's my mother's recipe, adapted from the recipe in Rosie's All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book (yep, that's the whoooole title), and it is phenomenal. I'm not a huge fan of nuts in baked goods, so we usually leave them out-- but feel free to add them back in if you want. This recipe is for a nine-inch layer cake, although Lindi used two tiny cake pans (I think they were 4") and made the rest into about 12-14 cupcakes and just baked for a shorter time, until the top sprang back to the touch. 


Ingredients for the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2  teaspoon allspice or nutmeg
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
2 cups grated carrots (roughly 4 carrots)
(Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts)
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 /2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease two nine inch cake pans.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and spices together in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Drain the pineapple (but do not dry-- this is what makes the cake so delicious and moist) and place it in a medium size bowl.  Add the grated carrots (and nuts, if desired) and mix together.
4. Mix the sugar, oil and vanilla together with a mixer until completely blended, about 20 seconds. 
5. Add the eggs one at a time and mix on medium speed until blended.  Add the dry ingredients and beat on low speed for 5 seconds.  Scrape the bowl, then mix the batter by hand until the dry ingredients are incorporated.
6. Blend in the pineapple. Mix with several turns of the mixer at low speed.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake on the center rack until the top is golden and springs back to the touch, and a tester inserted in the center comes out dry, about 45 minutes.  Place the cake on a rack to cool completely.

Directions for the cream cheese frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese
2 sticks butter, softened 
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Mix the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until blended.
2. Add the powdered sugar and mix until combined.
3. Add the vanilla, mix.
4. Spread on the cooled cake layers.

Lindi used white non-pareils and edible glitter for decoration on the two small cakes she made (one for us, one for my sister- who made our wedding cake two years ago!) and the cupcakes were just straight-up frosted.


It was DELICIOUS!