Baked chicken thigh

Oat Chocolate and Butterscotch Chip Cookies

Garlic Herb Bread

Mushroom and Scallion Quiche

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I just made this amazing carrot cake recipe yesterday. I found it pretty straightforward. In all, it took around 3 1/2 hours for the whole cake with the frosting. I began by following the recipe, and followed all the steps. However, I used less sugar for the cake batter (1 1/4 cups instead of 2 cups), 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup cooking oil instead of 1 cup cooking oil, and for the carrots, I shredded them largely with a certain mode on the food processor then processed them in the food processor with the normal setting. I found that with the frosting, there was no reason to use 4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups of powdered sugar because the consistency was fine, and it didn't need that much powdered sugar as far as taste goes. I can't remember the exact amount I used, but I mixed it in with the cream cheese and butter gradually and tasted it multiple times. I probably used around 2 cups of powdered sugar.

Here is my altered recipe:
(This is from that red plaid Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that basically everyone has)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups finely shredded carrot
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup applesauce
4 eggs

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add carrot, oil, applesauce and eggs. Beat with an electric mixer till combined.
      Pour into 2 greased and floured 9x1 1/2-inch round baking pans. Bake in a 350° oven for 30-35 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans. Cool thoroughly on racks. Makes 12 to 15 servings.

Cream cheese frosting:

2 3-ounce packages of cream cheese
1/4 cup softened margarine or butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 to 3 cups sifted powdered sugar

In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, margarine or butter, and vanilla till light and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating well. Taste as you go along to get a sweet taste that overrides the strong taste of the butter and cream cheese and make sure the frosting is the right consistency for spreading. Frost tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch cake layers. Cover cake; store in refridgerator.

To make the carrots, leave about 1/2 cup  frosting and put it in an extra bowl. Then take one drop red food coloring and two drops yellow food coloring and mix it in. Then spoon nickel sized spheres out to place evenly around the rim of the cake with about an inch in between each one. Use fingers to shape the spheres into carrots by pulling them towards the center.

Review:
With my recipe I would just like to say that the batter tasted just sugary enough with the frosting to have a perfect taste. However, if you like your cake batter more sugary, I would use 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups sugar or if you really like it sugary, all 2 cups. However, adding the same amount of sugar as flour felt a little strange when I was baking this, and the cookbook is pretty old which could be the reason for the large amount.

If you are using the altered amount of sugar in my recipe, I would recommend to make a little extra frosting to put in the middle of the two cake layers to make the sweet taste of the cake more noticeable.

Rating: Out of 5 stars, I would honestly probably give this recipe a 5! It had a great taste and if the batter is a little cold from the fridge when you eat it, it tastes really good and rich. The only thing I would have done next time is adding more frosting between the cake layers like I said (if that works with cream cheese frosting), because I couldn't taste any in my cake.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello! My name is Julia and I am in high school. I created this blog this summer because I realized that I might as well keep a blog if I am cooking and baking a lot to fight the boredom. I will try to post recipes for the food I make and take professional photos (a special thanks to my mom for letting me use her quality camera). I basically skimmed through my mom's  endless row of cookbooks and found some recipes to make with ingredients that are pretty much always abundant in a common household. For all four of the foods that I already made this summer, I used the ingredients that were already at home. I love to cook with my mom and it is especially fun to use fresh ingredients from our garden like basil (my favorite one to use) in recipes. Soon I will post the 4 recipes I made already this summer to have them on here. Enjoy the blog!