Carrot Cake

About a year ago my wonderful sister in-law in Australia recommend me a cake book, Family Circle, Making Beautiful Cakes. It's been out of print for while but she swore by it's recipes. I managed to track down a copy and at her advice the first thing I tried was the carrot cake.

It was delicious, and when I say delicious I mean TO DIE FOR! Carrot cake can be heavy and quite sweet sometimes, but this recipe is absolutely perfect! We had friends around and they all fawned over the cake... and not just out of politeness. I'm telling you this recipe is a real winner! A few months ago I made a version that was a third of the original for a small personal cake for a friend's birthday and she was thrilled, it's a good gift! Luckily she also took a photo of it... phew!

I really don't want to mess with the recipe so I think it's best to take it directly from the book, though I will say, I tended to use slightly less carrot by about 25g. Here is a scan of the recipe.

1 2 3 4 Cake

So I bit the bullet and reached way back to my southern roots (I was born in South Carolina) and grabbed a recipe from everyone's favourite diabetic unhealthy chef... Paul Dean!

This is a standard extremely easy vanilla cake all you need to remember is 1, 2, 3, 4. I recommend this if you are pressed for time or have never baked before. Plus... it's delicious, moist and light!


Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 cups sifted self-rising flour

4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans. 

Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. 

Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. 

Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. 

Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. 

Cool completely and spread cake layers with your favorite frosting to make a layer cake. I used buttercream but really anything would work.