Carrot Cake

I made my first ever carrot cake a week or so ago using our home grown carrots! I also made cream cheese frosting to go with it. I love carrot cake, but I've never been a fan of cream cheese frosting. However, when I made the frosting myself, I actually liked it. Awesome. 

The carrot cake was a total hit, everyone loved it! The consensus was that it was the best carrot cake ever because we used our homegrown carrots, haha. I made three minor changes to the recipe: I used chopped walnuts instead of pecans, I halved the amount of nuts in the cake as well as in the frosting, and I added deliciously plump raisins to the cake.  

This recipe is a keeper, it was so fun to use the carrots from our garden! Next time I hope to use a bunt cake pan to make the cake look prettier. 

Carrot Cake 
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/7402/carrot-cake-iii/ 

Ingredients: 

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans


Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. 
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan. 
3. Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.    

4. To make the frosting: in a medium bowl, combing the butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and vanilla. Bean until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cake.   

Enjoy! 

With love,
Mama Hauck

M&J Getaway

I wish we were able to get to Mike and Joanie's more frequently - like we use to - but gosh darn it, life just keeps getting busier and busier. We're lucky if we get out to them once a year now. We're very thankful we were able to get out there this summer when the weather was nice so we all could enjoy the pool. We enjoy our time there no matter what time of year we go, but the kids really dig the pool time....and so does Mama and Papa! 

 
The weather was so perfect, we ate all our dinners outside. Miss Molly did a fine job setting the table for us each night. She even insisted on having candles, which added a nice touch. :)

We went shopping and checked out an antique shop as well as hit up our favorite meat still place. We went on a few walks and watched the fish in the nearby creek. Timothy and Papa even went exploring in the creek! We did a lot of sitting around and relaxing, which is always a good, good thing.

We went blueberry picking at a local blueberry farm this year! That was super awesome! I really didn't realize just how big and loaded with berries blueberry bushes could get! We picked clean 4 bushes and got 20 pounds of blueberries! Timothy must have eaten a pound of blueberries himself.....and we all know what happens after eating too many blueberries....

 

 

We really enjoyed our 3 night stay.....it was very hard to drag the kids out of the pool that morning to hit the road back home! No one wanted to leave, and that's a good sign of a good time. 

Thanks again for your hospitality, Mike and Joanie! We love you guys.

With love,
Mama Hauck