Hop to It!

Whoa, where has the time gone?! Easter has come and gone and we're already in April. Time flies and before i know it, i haven't blogged in almost a month!

Let's see, well, i dyed Easter eggs, um yeah, they turned out v. bad, lol, but i was impressed by the way my paper towel came out (in case you were wondering what the heck that is up there).

I HAVE been cooking (still hit and miss around here, lol), just have no time to sit and write about my adventures.

But i'm here now, so here we go...

I hosted Easter this year and i didn't even realize it was Easter Sunday until the Wed before, so i just ordered pretty much everything from Honey Baked Ham and decided to focus on making a REAL carrot cake.

Mmm...i LOVE carrot cake but have never tried to make a real one (not one out of the box). So i googled carrot cake and this was the very first link:

Carrot Cake III

Hooray a good recipe! Well i actually took all of the suggestions from gneebeanie, a featured reviewer on this recipe. And seriously, there's a lot of tweaks, so i'm just going to write it here with all the tweaks already. Cause that's how i made it, and it was fabulous!

Tweaked Out Carrot Cake III
Serves 18

Cake:
4 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups grated carrots
1 8oz can of crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3-4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour can pans.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, white & brown sugar and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in carrots and drained pineapple. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Enjoy!

This cake was amazing! It fulfilled all my expectations of a really delicious, genuine, homemade carrot cake. And i can't believe i made the frosting too! That was so easy i couldn't believe it. I used only about 3 cups of confectioner's sugar, so i say start there and if it's not sweet enough for you, add some more.

The cake cooled just minutes before our guests arrived, and i asked my hubby to roll the outside of the cake in the chopped pecans so i could finish getting ready. About 3 minutes later, i walk into the kitchen to see him standing there throwing the pecans at the cake! LOL!!! So it didn't turn out looking exactly how i expected it to, but eh whatev, at least he had fun! :)