The Art of Making A Birthday Cake

I remember when I was little looking at all of the beautiful birthday cakes in the bakery window…..wondering why people only had a birthday cake once a year it didn’t quite seem fair.  I grew up with a Mother who was practically a professional at making Coconut Bunny Cakes at that point in time in my life I didn’t like coconut at all.  Now looking back I wonder what was wrong with me but for that matter I didn’t like carrot cake either.  Since my birthday is tomorrow which is a Monday I didn’t much want to bake a cake on Monday especially since I am working so my son and I made a carrot cake for me yesterday and it was absolutely delicious and positively decadent!

The Birthday Cake Book By Sylvia Thompson

My inspiration was with this cook book The Birthday Cake Book by Sylvia Thompson although I didn’t follow her recipe exactly I never do follow any recipe exactly I always try to make it my own mostly due to my lack of attention to detail.  The great thing about a carrot cake is lying in just about everyone’s fridge are a few carrots that are just lying in wait to be used ….this is the carrot’s big moment! 😉

Here is my version of her recipe!  The book though is available through my Amazon Widgets up on the right if you are interested or you may stumble upon it in your travels!  It is a keeper as its truly inspiring and interesting!

Grating The Carrots For The Cake

She calls it Old World Carrot Cake With Sour Cream Frosting and I call it Carrot Cake For Your Most Favorite of People as it is labor intensive and a involves a little bit of time.  It is worth it though!  My son helped me by grinding up the cloves with our mortar and pestle and he was in charge of the spices making sure we had the perfect blend of flavors.

I chopped these walnuts up for the cake

I used a springform pan for this recipe that can hold 7 cups of liquid.  Also make sure to have a pan under the springform pan just in case….I purchased my springform pan at a thrift store for 99 cents and it drips sometimes.    This cake says it makes 10 to 12 servings but in our house it made about 6 servings….

I placed some butter in the springform pan and melted it in the oven but I also sprayed spray oil around the edges just in case.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 C. all purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

pinch of cinnamon to taste

pinch of nutmeg to taste

pinch of ground cloves to taste (Be conservative!)

2 1/2 C. coarsely shredded carrots (wash carrots good first and cut off ends of course)

2/3 C. crushed pineapple

1/2 C. raisins ( I used raisins that were dehydrated from our grapes last year)

3 eggs at room temperature ( I used eggs from our chickens)

1 C. sugar (I plan to start using honey once we start getting honey from our hives next year)

1 TBSP. brown sugar

2/3 C. canola oil

2 TBSP. vanilla

1/2 C. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 and as I stated before melt that butter and spray the pan with the spray pan.

Sift all dry ingredients except for the sugar.

Then slowly add eggs, then oil, then sugar.  Separately mix the carrots, pineapple, and raisins.  Then slowly add them with a spatula. Then at the very end mix in the nuts with a spatula.  Then transfer all ingredients to the springform pan.  Bake for about an hour.  Check with a toothpick in the center.  I did have a hard time getting the center to be fully cooked.

The Cake is Done Baking

Sour Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

1 stick of butter

2 C. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2/3 C. sour cream

The Finished Product - YUM!

This cake is wonderful with a big glass of icy cold milk or a nice smooth cup of coffee!  Enjoy! We certainly did!  Any questions or anything unclear?  Please comment!  As always thanks for stopping by!