Food In The Fort

 Okay, I’m not exactly sure what the surprise in this carrot cake is supposed to be. In my case, I guess I was just surprised that my dad had made a carrot cake… Surprised and very happy, to be sure. He has been going through kind of a cake phase: a flour-less, European-style chocolate cake, a very involved-sounding pound cake (The recipe for which will not be appearing on this girl’s blog. When he got to the second time you had to sift the dry ingredients, I knew it wasn’t for me!), and now this yummy carrot cake taken from the back of the Softasilk Cake Flour box. I’m not sure what’s up with the whole thing, but I’m not going to complain. Keep on bakin’, Daddy-o!

Here’s the low-down on the carrot cake which may or may not be surprising, but certainly is easy to assemble and very tasty to boot. You’ll want to top it with cream cheese frosting. Enjoy.

Surprise Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• no-stick cooking spray with flour
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp allspice or ginger
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 3 large eggs
• 1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
• 2 cups (about 4) finely shredded carrots
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans generously with no-stick spray with flour.
2. Combine cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and allspice/ginger in a medium bowl.
3.  In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, eggs and crushed pineapple with juice.
4. Add flour mixture; beat with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds.
5. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
6. Stir in carrots and pecans.
7. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 28-32 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
8. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely.

Putting it all together

1. Place one cake layer topside down on serving plate. Spread with frosting.
2. Top with remaining cake layer, topside up.
3. Spread sides and top of cake with remaining frosting.

About the author:  I'm a Latin-teaching foodie who has lived (and eaten) in Fort Wayne for the past 10 years. I love all the ethnic grocery stores here and the great Mexican restaurants. Cooking is something that I really enjoy, although I tend to improvise a lot and experience my share of disasters. My parents are both wonderful cooks, as was my paternal grandmother (Oma), and I'm always trying to make things the way mom, dad or Oma did. Read more from this author