The holidays are over, but the chilly, crisp weather is here to stay, meaning there’s still an excuse to leave our ovens on and our sweet palates roaming for new and fun baked goods to try.
When I think of the wintertime, post-holiday season, I think of waking up late in the morning on school weekends, seeing the bright sun pierce through layers of mist and onto my bedroom floor and smelling my mom’s scrumptious carrot cake wafting under the crack of my door. At the time when high school was loaded with ACT prep, bountiful class projects and hours of extracurricular activities, coming downstairs to see my mom shuffling around the kitchen, preparing her favorite dessert using an ingredient from the produce section of the grocery store (since every fruit and vegetable we grew in the backyard died out in the winter), was always comforting. Getting the first bite of the cake when it was delivered fresh out of the oven was just about the only thing I looked forward to doing on those cloudy and oftentimes gloomy winter days.
This recipe has become a staple in my family’s culinary habits because it isn’t overly sweet, just the way we like it, but it surely utilizes the natural sweetness of the carrot that pairs very well with the earthy cinnamon and crunchy walnuts and doesn’t require any sort of frosting or topping at all. In fact, my entire family isn’t very big on dessert or sugary treats, yet this is a recipe that we keep on going back to, year after year, winter after winter.
… it surely utilizes the natural sweetness of the carrot that pairs very well with the earthy cinnamon and crunchy walnuts.
|
PREP TIME |
TOTAL TIME |
SERVINGS |
|
20 MIN |
1 HR |
10 |
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrots
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
- Stir together sugar and oil.
- Incorporate eggs one at a time.
- Mix in grated carrots, followed by the dry ingredients.
- Transfer contents from the mixing bowl to a standard loaf pan.
- Bake at 300 degrees for approximately 1 hour then let cool for thirty minutes.
- Cake can be stored covered in foil and left at room temperature for up to a week.
