Carrot cake with sugary cream cheese frosting

For my first Sugary Sunday, I decided to make carrot cake, a family favorite. After searching for recipes online, I found this one: Sam's famous carrot cake from allrecipes.com.

Because of all the positive reviews, I chose it. As for the cream cheese frosting, I chose the one from the following banana cake recipe: Best Ever Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

However, I took out all of the extra fillings, like coconut, walnuts, pineapple and raisins, because my Mom doesn't like coconut and my Dad and little sister didn't want the pineapple because they wanted to drink milk with the cake, plus they don't like raisins and as for the walnuts, I'm calorie counting and decided that I could do without them :). You get the idea.

I also reduced the recipe to two thirds of the original because it was made for an 8x12 inch pan and I wanted to use a 9 inch pan. Plus, this was more like a breakfast cake so I didn't want 16 servings.

So, here is my version of the recipe:

Carrot cake

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1.3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

1.3 cups flour

1.3 teaspoons baking soda

1.3 cups shredded carrots

Sorry about all the 1.3's :), that 0.3 is actually the equivalent of 5 tablespoons.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour your pan. I used a non-stick one, saves all the hassle of this step.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well. I actually forgot to add the sugar to the liquid mixture at first and remembered after adding the flour one. Oh well, didn't make much of a difference anyway.

4. Using a large wooden spoon or a very heavy whisk, add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well.

5. Pour into prepared pan, and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35-40 minutes. Check with toothpick.

6. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

1/4 cup butter, softened

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups icing sugar

1. Cream butter and cream cheese. I used a mixer for this, using the pastry extension, so that it wouldn't get clogged.

2. Add vanilla and icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.

Then frost your cake and pop it into the fridge for a couple of hours before serving. Or leave it there overnight. Or take a bite if you can't resist this moist, sugary goodness.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a breakfast treat, so I made it the night before and kept it in the fridge till morning. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a picture of the entire thing because the Cake and Cookie Monster, *cough* my Dad *cough*, and my sister had already found it.

As for my family's reaction... they all said it was amazing! My Dad and Mom said that I should use a little less sugar next time, but my sister, who can never get enough sugar into my system, said it was perfect. So this is awesome for all you sweetaholics out there. There was no cake left after just 3 hours so I'm guessing that's a pretty good sign that it was a success. As for me, I loved it! Try it, you won't regret it!

Hello, fellow amateur bakers!

Well, here it is, my first ever recipe blog! I will be posting recipes, good and bad experiences, tips and also pictures of my "creations", which I hope will be cute and not little monsters. I hope that together we will discover more about the wonderful world of baking and hopefully uncover some of its delicious secrets.