Celebrating Spring {TWD Rewind: Bill's Big Carrot Cake}

Oh, it's springtime in Washington, DC. The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, the bumblebees are bumblebuzzing around me (I could do without that part, really), and the Singleton is finally shedding a few of her many winter layers (soooo many layers -- I hate getting dressed when it's cold) and enjoying spring.

I have a terrible case of Spring Fever  this year. I don't want to work, I just want to sit outside and soak up the sun and the warm air. It's not a really great scenario, actually. Springtime seems to be the time when everyone thinks of carrot cakes (thus their domination of the blogosphere lately). I do love to join in on the fun, so here's my contribution to spring and carrot cakes -- Bill's Big Carrot Cake. This was a TWD selection almost 2 years ago -- oh my goodness! -- from Slow Like Honey.

One evening last September, Dudley picked up Baking From My Home to Yours and started paging through it. He would look at the pictures and say, "I ate that," or "oooh, I remember that one! That was good." I was having fun looking at the cookbook with him because a) I've never seen him look at a cookbook before and b) I loved hearing him reminisce about certain recipes that the TWD group has made and he's really enjoyed. At some point I mentioned that he could pick out any recipe in the book and I would make it for him. This meant that we had to start at the beginning again, but it came down to two recipes (pictures, really):  the Chocolate Caramel Crunch Tart and Bill's Big Carrot Cake. The tart was already a selection for that month, but Dudley ended up choosing the carrot cake. Cathy and Nancy have both done rewinds of the carrot cake and raved about it and I was really excited to make this cake.

I went out and purchased the necessary three (!!) 8" cake pans right away and I had every intention of making this cake right away. Shortly after that, though, my semester turned into a postmodern collapse, a runaway train, you name it. There was no way I was making the carrot cake any time before 2010. Then I was going to make it for Dudley's birthday celebration, but Tres Leches cupcakes seemed more appropriate for the fiesta. When Easter rolled around, more than 6 months after I told Dudley he could pick a dessert for me to make, I knew it was time to make the carrot cake. It's seasonal, it's festive, and darn it, I promised I was going to make this cake! Besides, I still had three, brand spanking new 8" cake pans that had never been used. Not once. Ridiculous.

I made the cake layers on the Saturday before Easter, and imagine my surprise when I looked at the recipe and saw the phrase "butter three 9" cake pans" -- whaaaaaaat? No way. nowaynowaynowaynowaynoway. I bought the wrong size? And I only needed one extra pan, not three? And, I don't have three 9" pans. UUUGGHHHH. I almost gave up on the cake again, but when you don't have a food processor and you've already shredded 3 cups of carrots by hand, you're committed. I decided I would make the cake in the 8" pans and make cupcakes with the leftover batter. It was a nice solution to the problem. The cake is seriously easy to mix up, and can I just tell everyone how much I love oil-based cakes? I love them because they're so much easier to mix together -- it seems like you just dump everything in the bowl, mix, and you're done. It's fantastic. When it came time to divide the batter among the pans I measured it out so that, with any luck, I'd have some even layers. It turns out that I barely had enough batter to fill up the three 8" pans. This might be a result of my decision to omit both the nuts and the dried fruit from the cake (Dudley doesn't like either in his cakes). At any rate, I ended up with three 8" layers. Hooray. It works out in the end, afterall. I mixed up the cream cheese frosting on Sunday (also very simple) and topped the cake with toasted coconut.

I'm happy to report that Dudley loved this cake. I honestly don't think he ever remembered that this was the recipe that he chose so many months ago, but he loved it nonetheless. I boxed up the cake and sent it to work with Dudley and I think that the nice people in his office enjoyed it as well. I really don't like cream cheese frosting, so I just had a bite of the cake part and it was really tender, moist, and tasty. I suppose I might add a little more spice to the cake next time, but I like my baked goods with extra cinnamon/ginger spice-ish taste. The aspect of this cake that thrills me to the core though, is how much return you get on your time investment. This is by far the least time consuming recipe that I've made from the "Celebration Cakes" chapter of BFMHTY. It's a gorgeous cake and it came together so quickly, so I give this cake really, really high marks. I'll definitely make it again. If you'd like the recipe, here's a link, or just go ahead and buy Baking From My Home to Yours. It's worth every penny and then some.