Deb, from the illustrious smitten kitchen, said about birthday cakes,

“I think the very least someone deserves for hitting such a fine age with style is a friend, elbows-deep in flour, frosting and devotion.”

Which pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about birthday cakes. While Deb’s cakes make me feel like the poorest of amateurs I agree completely that any lovingly made cake just tastes better. And nothing says, “I love you,” like 2 cups of finely grated carrots. Talk about blood, sweat and tears…

The joke about my mom’s birthday cake is: there’s so many fruits and vegetables included you can just skip dinner and go straight to the cake. It is a moist, spicy cake with a world of textures and surprises in every bite. It’s almost worth the bloody knuckles and days hours minutes of grating carrots.

Gramma’s Carrot Cake

• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup oil
• 1 20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
• 2 cup grated carrots, approx 6 large or 2lbs
• 1/4 cup golden raisins, chopped
• 1/4 cup finely chopped, toasted pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare cake pan-I use 2 rounds although you can bake this as a 9 x 13-with grease and flour (Baker’s Joy).
2. Measure flour into a medium bowl by spooning flour loosely into a measuring cup then leveling off. Add additional dry ingredients: sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir to combine.
3. In a separate bowl combine eggs, oil, crushed pineapple and carrots, stir to combine.
4. Slowly add flour mixture to wet mixture stirring as necessary to moisten and combine ingredients, reserving the last 1/4 cup of flour mixture.
5. Toss chopped raisins and pecans with remaining flour mixture until coated, then stir into cake batter.
6. Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pans and bake for approximately 40-50 min.
7. Allow cakes to cool on wire racks until room temperature.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz block cream cheese
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar

1. Cream butter and cream cheese in a bowl with beaters on high until well combined and fluffy.
2. Slow beaters and stir in powdered sugar. If frosting gets too runny put it in the fridge until it firms up.

How to frost a layer cake:

1. Place one layer on a cake stand or plate and spoon some frosting on top.
2. Smooth the frosting from the center out to the edges with a spatula.
3. Place the second layer, upside down, on top.
4. Spoon some more frosting over the top and start spreading it. This layer will catch all of the loose crumbs so don’t worry about that. Use enough frosting to just barely cover the cake, then refrigerate until the frosting firms up.
5. Last, dump all the frosting on top and spread from the center out. As frosting piles up at the edges, smooth it down the sides. Done, decorate!

Hey feed-readers, click through and check me out!

I know change is hard, or at least for me it is. It’s nice though to be able to see bigger pictures and have more writing space. So there are a few kinks to work out and I may find a few more as we go but so far I like the new look.

So what do you think?

I have never been a “fruit in the salad” kind of girl. Salads are made of vegetables and fruit ingredients seem inappropriate and somewhat suspect. I was surprised and excited then to try this colorful salad at my grandparents’ house. Simply consisting of greens, strawberries, and pecans with a light splash of sweet onion dressing it was delicious and refreshing. I have craved it since leaving their house. I finally got the opportunity to make it and it was just as I remembered: slightly sweet with a nice light, tang from the dressing, over cold, crisp salad greens. I have some directions below, but not a concrete recipe. Make as much or as little as you’d like and vary the amounts til you’re satisfied.

Strawberry Salad

• Several cups of chopped salad greens, I used a combination of romaine and iceberg lettuce for crunch and because that’s all I had, Sunny recommended spinach as well
• Sliced strawberries
• A few tbsp pecans, chopped-I toasted mine as well, thinking there would be a huge flavor difference but there really wasn’t.
• Sweet Onion Dressing

I chopped everything beforehand and stored them all separately in the fridge then tossed the salad with a couple tablespoons of dressing before serving. My Aunt mentioned that she often makes up a large version of this to take to potlucks. It is easy to store and put together, but quite impressive and different. Thank you again, Sunny, for introducing me to such a delightful, easy salad. I will make it regularly.

We have made this salad over and over!  Our latest version is made with a balsamic vinaigrette and mint, check it out. What’s your favorite salad recipe? Are you afraid of fruit in your salads?

It’s over 100 degrees here for most of the day and the thought of actually cooking something makes me nauseous. Therefore salad, salad, and more salad is pretty much the only thing on the menu this week. This subtle, slightly sweet dressing was served to us by my grandparents on our recent vacation. It is a delicious, light dressing that’s not too sweet but goes nicely with summery salads. Because I can’t ever leave a perfectly good recipe alone, I increased the seasonings in this-use the lower amounts if you prefer less sodium.

Sweet Onion Dressing

• 1/2 cup oil, I didn’t have canola oil so I used extra light olive oil
• 3 tbsp white vinegar
• 1/2 yellow onion, grated with juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2-1 tsp salt
• 1/2-1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Whisk to combine all ingredients.
2. Store in the fridge, whisk again before serving. You can warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds if necessary to get the oil to mix.

You could strain the dressing to remove the onion pieces once the flavors have sat and combined, however I like the little bits of onion in my salad. Next time I might try sending it for a spin in the blender so I don’t grate my knuckles. Next, you’ll get to see the delicious strawberry salad they served us-I’m totally addicted! Thank you Papa and Sunny for entertaining and feeding us and our rambunctious children. We had a wonderful visit and hope we can come again soon!

What’s your favorite salad topping? Let me know in the comments: is it a recipe or a store brand you can’t live without?