79. Sometimes you've gotta improvise.

This month's EBEW is DIY. I think this theme is so awesome for so many bloggers. Thrifting and DIY-ing those items is such a popular thing lately. I don't thrift, because I just haven't ever tried it, and I suck at sewing. The only way I DIY is cutting. So, since I'm not so crafty, I decided to do-it-myself in a different way and make something that I really enjoy.

Carrot cake!

Yeah, okay, it's cheating. That's okay, sometimes you need to bend the rules a little. I was planning on posting this earlier during the weekend, in a Thanksgiving themed dessert post. I was also planning on making something to wear. Neither happened due to some family stuff, but the present is as good of a time as ever to post this awesome recipe! Click through to read the instructions, but beware this is photo heavy!


Here's your cast, what you'll need to make this beautiful cake! I did this at night, my first mistake. Pictures do not come out as nice in artificial light. This is 2 cups of carrots - grated, 4 eggs, 1 cup each of brown and white sugar, 1 cup of vegetable oil, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1 tsp each of cinnamon, baking powder, & baking soda. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F!

 

The Pioneer Woman makes this look much easier. Cracking eggs while taking a picture of it...not an easy task!!!  Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, add the sugars. Cream well!

Add the oil then mix well again. Mine looked like this!

 

Sift Stir together the baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour together in a separate bowl. Then add to the wet mixture. Mix well, then add carrots. Be prepared for the prettiest batter ever...

See? Told you. Pour the mixture into your pre-flour&buttered pan. I've used a Bundt pan twice and  9x13 once, the flatter pan tends to cook the cake better IMO. 

 

While waiting mix up your icing. I used a different icing than this recipe, just a mixture of cream cheese / icing / vanilla. A splash of milk helps too if the icing is too thick for your liking.  I used too much milk and therefore had enough to cover two cakes. The eaters of the cake didn't seem to mind. You should let the cake cool before icing, but I'm impatient. It doesn't hurt the cake, but it does get a little mushier.

puddles of icing...

So there's my DIY! I hope you enjoyed it and it's not too confusing. Here's the link for the original recipe. Try it out, let me know how it goes! I'd love to hear your comments :)

Til next time!