Carrot cake topped with cream cheese icing and toasted coconut

We all know that carrots are a good and important food, even when baked in a cake and slathered with a cream cheese icing (hey, dairy products are important, too).

Carrot to dance? Michigan artist Pat Custer Denison created this tile, a favorite of mine

I made this cake for a recent gathering using Michigan carrots, so it was not only good for us, it was good for the state’s agricultural industry and local economy.

If you need a Halloween dessert you could add chocolate chips, bake it as a layer cake in round pans, tint the icing orange, and decorate it like a Jack-o’-lantern.

To make it really scary, calculate and tell everyone the calories in each slice.

This recipe is adapted from the Renaissance Cuisine cookbook published by the St. John Hospital Fontbonne Society. If it’s in a hospital group’s cookbook, it can’t be all bad, right?

Carrot Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups sugar
1-1/4 cups salad oil
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, raisins or chocolate chips (optional)

Method

Grease and lightly flour a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish.
Combine sugar, salad oil and eggs in a large bowl.
Sift flour, baking powder and soda, salt and cinnamon. Blend into egg mixture.
Stir in carrots and nuts.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely. Frost with cream cheese icing:
Cream softened 8 oz. cream cheese, 1 stick (room temperature) butter, and 1 tsp. vanilla
Gradually add 1 lb. 10x powdered sugar
Sprinkle with chopped or pieces of walnuts or pecans, or toasted coconut

Carrot cake with orange-colored cream cheese icing is a delish Halloween treat

Stories and photos copyright Kath Usitalo unless otherwise noted