Carrots Are Better with Cake

Carrots. Since I was young I was told that they could help with my eyesight. So naturally I ate a carrot every chance I get. Well, now here I am, typing away adjusting my glasses every few seconds because the carrots failed me. However, even though they didn’t heal my horrible eyes, I still love them in different foods.

Today, I made carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. 

The Cake 

• Super duper easy to make. Mix all the ingredients and you get the batter.
• I was actually surprised that the batter was very similar to that of the coffee crumble cake thing I previously made.
  • It was sticky and looked like a very small amount of dough as I spread it across my 9×13 pan.
• Also like the other cake, it wasn’t that sweet, as it only had one cup of sugar.
• The recipe said that in the 9×13 pan it would take 30-35 minutes but at like 25 my cake was done. Guess it really does just depend on the oven.

The Frosting

• Very easy except I didn’t really know what consistency it was supposed to be. I think mine was a little to “runny” but the flavor was pretty good.
• I also didn’t use all the powdered sugar it said to use.
  • I used 2 cups instead of 3

This cake complimented very nicely with the frosting since the cake wasn’t super sweet. I would most likely make this again once I know the “perfect consistency” of cream cheese frosting.

What is that thing on top??

Lemon. I love lemon. When I found Lemon Curd Bars in JOC I figured I needed to make it.

This recipe was, overall, really simple to make. The times suggested for baking were also on point.

The Crust

• Flour, sugar and butter. I had to cut the butter into the flour and sugar so I used my fingers like suggested. Eventually, I found myself using my whole hand and figured what could go wrong.
• The recipe also said to make the mixture into “pea size” crumbs or something. Some were pea size. Others were grape size. And others looked like sand. I didn’t know how to fix this, so I just went with it and threw it in my pan.
• The butter did start to melt and I think it’s just because I “played” with it too much.

The Filling

• Really simple and good!
• I didn’t have enough lemons. I had previously bought 5 lemons but had to work with 3 because my dad decided to use some during the week because carne asada and lemons are a must. I should’ve had 1 cup and a little more to use in the filling but I came up with only 1/3 cup. It worked though! I feel like 1 cup would’ve been too much.
• OK and what the heck is the white thing that is on top? Its really fragile and and like sweet. Is it from the sugar? I honestly don’t know what it is but it kind of ruined the bars. Its way too sweet. I just scrape it off when I get a bar. Maybe it was because the recipe had a lot of sugar in it? 3 cups!

Like I said these were really good, but that thing kinda ruined it. If you have any idea why its there let me know. I’ll make them again for sure.

PS: I don’t mean the white powdery thing, thats powdered sugar that I added (and eventually took off) because I didn’t know it’d be so sweet. I mean the thing that has the cracks in it.

I Want ALL the Crumbs

Cinnamon. Butter. Cake. Amazing.

This was without a doubt the best way to make your house smell like the holiday season. And during summer. Crumb Cake. Just the smell alone makes me so happy. It smells so good and it is SO easy to make. You just fold the dry into the wet and spread it in the pan. Then top it with this butter flour cinnamon crumb thing.

The only thing I was kinda weirded out by was how little batter there is. You need to really spread it because its also a sticky batter. I used the back of a spoon but I wish I would’ve like sprayed it with something so it wouldn’t stick to the batter.

It also bakes super fast. It only takes 25 minutes in my oven. 25 minutes. And you basically get Christmas. How fabulous.

PB and Yay!

I had a craving. A craving for something sweet and chewy. I turned the pages of Joy of Cooking and landed on something that I had actually been wanting to make for a while. Peanut Butter Cookies! These were super easy to make. You basically mix all the ingredients together and plop them on to a baking sheet. Simple as that.

Well of course you have to mix the dry ingredients first, then the sugars and butters, then the wet, and then the dry. You know the usual.

The hardest part for me was believe it or not pressing down on the cookies with the fork. I know, kinda sad. I tried putting flour on the fork so it wouldn’t stick but then the flour would get on the cookie and I wasn’t sure if I liked that. I just held down the cookie as I pressed.

The book said the recipe yields “about sixty 1 1/2-inch cookies” but with the size I made, I got half of that.

They were both “rich and crumbly” just like the book said. I will definitely be making these again.