Recipe: Carrot Cake

This year, I grew an abundance of carrots. I grew them in the multi-sowing pattern: three seeds in one hole. If you’re like me, you’ve been taught since your first steps in the garden to either drop one seed in the hole or (since this is carrots), scatter them and when they start to grow, thin out the weaker seedlings to give the carrot lots of room to grow.

Well, that’s not how Charles Dowding does it, and I’ve been watching his videos and following him for almost two years. He puts three seeds in and grows carrots (and other vegetables, such as onions) in clumps.

My experience with this has been extremely interesting.

I can’t say these deformed characters were the result of multi-sowing or the organic seeds I had sown. However, these are the most interesting carrots I’ve ever grown. My onions sown with this method grew normally.

More on this multi-sowing method and Dowding in a future post. This post is about carrot cake.

I pulled the last of the carrots from the garden on December 14th, the day before temperatures were predicted to drop below -10 Celsius.

I’ve made this recipe several times, starting in 2017. I found the original on the Internet and tweaked it to my tastes. The original didn’t include raisins, but I love raisins.

I’ll be honest, when I look at carrot cake, nothing in my body says, “Oh. Lovely. That looks so delicious.”

Then I take a bite, and my taste buds ignite with excitement, and I love this cake.

Carrot Cake

In a sauce pan

• melt 1 1/4 cup butter

In a small bowl, shred

• enough carrots to make three cups – that’s about 4 carrots average size

In a small bowl, mix

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

In a large bowl, mix

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 4 eggs, beaten
• Add the melted butter to the large bowl and mix well for one minute.

Add dry ingredients to large bowl and mix well for two minutes.

Fold in

• 3 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup of walnut pieces
• 1 cup raisins

Pour this into a 9 inches x 13 inches baking pan, or two round 8 inch pans.

Preheat oven 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Let cool, then add cream cheese topping.

Cream Cheese Topping

In a bowl, dump

• 1 cup cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together for about 2 minutes. Spread on cake and decorate with small pieces of walnut.

There are fancy renditions of this cake on the Internet, ones with little images of carrots made from icing and stuff. Personally, I just go with the nuts, but I’m not making this for a party; I’m making it for me and the others in the house who enjoy it.

I store this cake in the fridge, not on the counter, because of the cream cheese.

Christmas

I’ve made a tradition of making this cake for me for Christmas. I’ve found several others who come to the house also love it, so I share. However, half of it goes into the freezer, so I can take out a piece to enjoy over the coming weeks (without all the work to make it).

While this has been a trying year for many, others have excelled and taken the opportunity to do many things they never thought they’d do. Let’s take the next week and enjoy the moment, our health and the company of those we love.

If you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas.

If you don’t, enjoy your week.