Ina's Carrot Cake

I adore carrot cake. So does my mom. For years though, we were the only ones who did- that, and pumpkin pie. The rest of my family? They want CHOCOLATE, so that's usually what I made for holidays and birthdays. I got tastes of carrot cake here and there- a teacher at school makes a great one and would bring it for staff parties. Occasionally, a Costco carrot cake might be served at a party- it's surprisingly good, with a delicious apricot mousse sandwiched between its layers. But I never really bothered with making one myself- I hadn't found a really good recipe that was worth dragging out the Cuisinart to shred all those carrots and one cake really is much too much for just one person.
I'm not sure how carrot cake came up- Munch has certainly been on a carrot kick, but I may have just been thinking out loud again as I perused recipes. She got really excited though at the mention of carrot cake. Turns out her daycare lady likes it, too and has made one for the kids (most likely, carrot muffins). So, with the prospect of two carrot cake lovers in the house and specific individuals we could share slices with, I decided to hunt a recipe down. I didn't have to look far to find Ina Garten's recipe for carrot cake with chunks of pineapple (yum!). All her recipes are incredibly delicious and pretty simple, so I figured it was worth a try!
Getting the ingredients together-

This recipe make a humongous cake! I think I'll halve the recipe next time. Also, the frosting was REALLY soft- I don't think I'll let the butter and cream cheese sit out to soften as long AND I'll plan for some time to chill the cake to firm it all up- it slid a lot when I frosted the layers and cut the first pieces.


My happy taste tester! The cake was DELICIOUS!!!