I know I have been missing. But I have a good excuse. Lots of them actually!

I can’t wait to tell you about all of the projects I am working on, but it is not quite time for some of them yet. So what I will tell you is that my little Pia is growing up so quickly I can barely believe it. She is on “Spring Break” for goodness sakes!

I have been spending time with her the last few days that my busy work schedule and her busy school and activity schedule have not allowed for in ages. And I have to say, it has been really nice.

I love having her in the kitchen with me again. She enjoys baking so much, and Coco was willing to hand over the sous chef reigns the past few days.

To say that I am sorry for going missing, I am sharing a special and highly delectable recipe with you today.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Now, please understand. This is Carrot Cake for people who otherwise don’t like carrot cake. I know this because I don’t like Carrot cake or cream cheese frosting.

Please don’t judge me.

There are no nuts, or raisins, or weird little bits of fruits in this cake. Or anything else that I guess in my mind turns me off from your average carrot cake. This is just moist and tender and lightly spiced.

And the frosting is vanilla and creamy and light and just has a hint of tang from the cream cheese.

What a wonderful dessert for Mothers Day ladies and gentleman! What do you think?

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, serves 8-10
1 cup soft butter
¼ cups oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 Tb Vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
3 cups shredded carrots (I ran mine through a food processor)

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 ½ tsp vanilla paste (or a scraping of ½ a vanilla bean or just extract)
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 Tbs milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 3 8” pans (or two 9” pans) with circles of parchment paper and baking spray.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter, oil and sugars.

Add the eggs and vanilla and combine well.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and combine.

Add the carrots and beat until you have a well mixed batter.

Evenly divide them between the three (or two) cake pans.

Bake them at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake layers cool on a cooling rack.

While the cake is cooling, make the frosting:

Beat all of the frosting ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer until completely combined and light and fluffy.

When the cake is completely cool, frost the cake, adding frosting to each layer before adding the next cake round.

Garnish with berries or pansies!