Ok, Let's try this again...

I made one post and disappeared for a few months. Unfortunately, I was not off traveling to exotic locations, running marathons, or anything cool like that...I admit it. I was lazy. But I really want to make this work.

My friends, Gabe and Kourtney have been raving about the different foods they have been cooking lately and I, of course, demanded the recipes. They put them on a website since they had so many requests. They inspired me to update this more often. Thanks guys!

I suppose I should post about something I cooked in the past week: Carrot Cupcakes.

On Thursday, I made some carrot cupcakes for a Zombie party that I threw with my honey on Saturday night. I ended up making two recipes that night.

I orginally made a recipe for carrot cake that I found on epicurious.com, which included coconut, crushed pineapple, and pureed carrots. I somehow missed the step of beating the eggs and sugar together prior to adding the other stuff, and when I baked the cupcakes, they tasted eggy and were all sorts of lumpy.

So I grated 4 more cups of carrot with my handy little cheese grater and made a different recipe (from the same place). This one came out really yummy and moist. I added golden raisins, substituted 1/5 C. brown sugar, and only added one cup of white sugar. Oh, and there was some ground ginger, nutmeg, and allspice thrown in there, too.

I made a simple cream cheese, butter, vanilla, nutmeg frosting to top it and was going to frost them when I got to Calistoga that night; however, I forgot it in the fridge and I arrived to my destination with naked cupcakes. I had to run to the store and pick up some canned frosting before the party. The cupcakes received rave reviews. Most people commented that they never get carrot cake so it was a nice treat.

I plan on making the cake again so I'll use the frosting for that.

Here's the recipe. I'll update with some pictures after I bake the cake:

Carrot Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated peeled carrots
1/2 cup golden raisins
You could add 1 1/4 cups walnuts. I didn't cause one person has a nut allergy.

Icing
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

For cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots and raisins. Divide batter between prepared pans.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely.

For icing: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat at low speed until well blended. Add vanilla and nutmeg. Chill until just firm enough to spread, 30 minutes.

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup icing. Top with second layer. Spread remaining icing over entire cake.

I'm a freak of nature and like my carrot cake cold. Most people serve it at room temperature, though.