Grandma's Carrot Cake (w/ Cream Cheese Frosting)

Some families pass down the secret recipe to a meatsauce. Some jealously hoard their special cookies, or perhaps a recipe for a magic dressing that improves even the lamest salad. In my family, we pass down carrot cake. In fact, even committing this recipe to writing is something of a heresy; my grandmother never wrote it down, and baked from memory each of the hundreds (or thousands) of times she made this cake. My mother used this cake as the recipe for her wedding cake, and even as Grandma baked twenty (!) of the cakes for the reception, she never told my mother what the exact ingredients were.

She passed it to me a few years ago over the telephone. I'd broken up with a boyfriend, and was consoling myself by baking like a madwoman. There's nothing like fresh bread and cookies to ease the pain of men. Anyway, Grandma chose that moment to give me the recipe for her special carrot cake, and I've made it ever since. I've always been a little scared that I'll lose the piece of paper jotted with notes on how to prepare it, though, so now it's going into this blog. I know that nothing on the internet is sacred, but I don't think it matters. Some recipes are special no matter what.

This cake is lighter in texture than any other carrot cake I've tried, and is faintly sweet but not sugary. It's in fact less sweet than I always expect it to be, which is perfect for the cream cheese icing. It's also perfect for letting me delude myself into eating lots of it, because hey, it's got less sugar and carrots! That's almost like it's healthy, right? Right?

Grandma's Carrot Cake

2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup nuts
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon) together. In a separate large bowl, beat together the eggs and the oil. Add the dry ingredients to the eggs and oil, and stir to mix thoroughly. Add the carrots and the nuts to this mixture, and stir until they're evenly distributed through the batter. Pour the batter evenly between two 9 inch cake pans.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (in my current oven, I bake it for 35 min at 375F, but then my current oven tends to run cool).


Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
1 stick margarine (or unsalted butter)
1 box confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Optional: 1 can coconut OR a handful of nuts

Soften the cream cheese and the margarine to room temperature. Using an electric mixer, beat together the margarine and the cream cheese. Add the confectioner's sugar (may want to turn the mixer down some, so that the sugar doesn't poof everywhere), and beat until the sugar is incorporated completely and the icing is smooth. Add the vanilla, and beat until that's incorporated. If you're adding other ingredients (I like this icing kept simple for this cake, but for other cakes coconut or nuts may feel more appropriate), add them here. Cover and chill the icing if you're not using it immediately.