Mom's Carrot Cake

I have a treat for you today; it's my mom's carrot cake recipe.  That's ok, right Mom?  I mean, you're a generous soul and I'm sure you want everyone to be able to enjoy this bit of decadence.  

I love carrot cake.  Sometimes I'll start craving it and DH and I will go in search of a restaurant or bakery that serves a good coffee cake.  Well, actually, he is looking for chocolate cake.  It's so hard to find just the right cake.  THIS is just the right cake.  It's so moist and full of goodies.  And it's carrots!  It's a vegetable, so it must be good for us, right?  It also weighs a ton and reminds me a lot of an English pudding instead of a cake.  Because I can't allow this to be around the house, I look for excuses to make it and take it elsewhere.  Luckily, with it being Mother's Day this last weekend, I had just the excuse I needed.  And even better, it turned out that my mother-in-law's favorite cake is carrot.  To top that off, with DH's huge family, there was no chance of there being a bunch of leftovers.

So on to the recipe...

Mom's Carrot Cake (very slightly adapted)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
about 3 cups grated raw carrots
1 small can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350℉, with rack in lower third of oven.  Lightly butter and flour a 13"X9" rectangular cake pan.  Sift together the first 5 ingredients into a medium size bowl.  In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil; add the beaten eggs and vanilla.  Next, gently fold in the flour mixture.  You don't want to over beat, so just do this by hand.  Plus it feels so old fashioned and homey to do it this way!  Mix in the pineapple, then the carrots, and finally the nuts.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until a pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Start checking on the cake at 35 minutes. 

There may come a point when you are checking the progress and you are afraid that it's never going to cook in the middle, because it's been going for 40 minutes and the middle is still jiggley.  It will be ok.  Just let it go another 5, and check it again.  Do your first checking by just looking through the window if you can, because every time you open the door, you are letting out a lot of heat, that then needs to build up again, and it can spoil your cake.  If it's very uncooked in the middle, you will be able to tell by looking.

I am cooking at high altitude here in Utah, but this recipe is not a high altitude recipe.  After it comes out of the oven, let it cool completely, and then frost.  I don't have a real recipe for frosting.  I just put a stick of unsalted butter, an 8 ounce package of cream cheese, and a splash of vanilla in the mixer bowl.  Whip it up, then start adding powdered sugar until it looks like the right amount.  You can put in a tablespoon or two of milk or cream if you'd like, or some lemon juice is good too.  Frost the cake, put on your baggy pants or a loose dress, and enjoy!