Carrot Cake

Today, I have decided to share with you a delicious and nutritious carrot cake recipe. Well, it's delicious. I wouldn't call it nutritious...per se.
But I'm going to share it anyway.

Because I want to.

Carrot Cake
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1 1/3 C. sugar
1/2 C. sweetened flaked coconut
1/3 C. chopped pecans
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 TBS. canola oil
2 large eggs
2 C. grated carrot
1 1/2 C. (1 can) crushed pineapple, drained
Cooking spray

Frosting:
2 TBS. butter, softened
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
3 C. powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. To prepare cake, combine flour, sugar, coconut, pecans, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk.
3. In mixing bowl, combine oil and eggs; blend. Stir flour mixture, grated carrot and pineapple into oil/egg mixture.
4. Spoon batter into a 13x9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.
5. To prepare the frosting, combine butter and cream cheese in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla just until smooth. Spread frosting over top of cake. Garnish each serving with grated carrot, if desired.

So, first of all, you'll need about 3 carrots.
If you can't find freakishly huge, gargantuan-sized carrots like these, 4 regular sized ones will probably do the trick.

Oh, and a paper plate adds much to the overall elegance of the whole process.

I know these aren't actually that big. I didn't use the ginormous one. It still rests peacefully in the produce drawer of the fridge, awaiting it's future fate.

Peel the carrots, and then cut each one into about 3 pieces. Just small enough to fit into the food processor.

Using the small-grate blade thingy, (or the large grate, if you prefer big hunks of carrot in your cake), shred them all up.

Isn't the blessed soul who invented the food processor worthy of a Nobel Peace Price...or something?
I agree.

Anyway, the carrots need to equal about 2 cups. I had just a little bit more, so instead of saving a teensy bit for garnish like I would have done if I were intelligent and thoughtful, I just packed it all in and called it 2 cups.

Now, you'll need to combine the flour and sugar...

With the coconut, pecans, baking soda and salt.

Oh yeah, and cinnamon.

Mix it all together until it resembles...this:

(Don't worry. I'm making a mental note not to use orange tupperware for this again.)

Now, in your mixing bowl, combine the eggs and oil.

Then you're going to dump the carrots, pineapple and flour mixture into the egg/oil goop.

Mix it up until it looks like this:
(Revolting)

Now spread it in the pan until it looks like this:
(Revolting. Still.)

Here. Have a closeup.
Don't puke.

Ugh! Don't even think about the resemblance to puke.
Oops. Didn't want to bring that up.

Sorry. That was disgustingly corny. No more up-chucking puns.

Now that we've all lost our appetites, let's get on with the cooking.
Put the pan of yummy, mouthwatering batter into the oven at 350. It should bake for about 35 minutes. I thought it looked a little overdone, but it turned out to be perfect.


Now, I shall skip the frosting preparation pictures, because they turned out horribly. Suffice it to say, you mix up all the frosting ingredients, beat until smooth, then spread on cake.

It slathers on thick and creamy. (The only reason the frosting looks slightly lumpy in the very top picture is because I tried re-smoothing it the next day before I took the picture. Not one of my brighter ideas.)

Serve and sing the hallelujah chorus.

Happy cooking!