Old Fashioned Carrot Cake

We usually host an Easter egg hunt at our home for our families, but this year, we had an 80% chance of rain. We scheduled lunch at my parents' home instead. Good thing - it rained all day! I brought broccoli and rice casserole which you can read about here. I also made an old-fashioned carrot cake. First time for me, but it was delicious!

I found this recipe on the Taste of Home website. You can find it here and get the exact ingredients and measurements.

I began by tracing my 9" cake pans on parchment paper.

I keep parchment paper and use it for all kinds of things from lining cookie sheets to tracing sewing patterns.

Cut just inside the line so it will fit inside the pan.

Grease pan with Crisco and then insert parchment. Grease parchment.

Cream shortening and sugar

Add eggs, one at a time.

Beat in pineapple.

Mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Whisk together well.

Grate two cups carrots. Clean up mess!

Add flour a little at a time, being careful not to over mix.

Scrape down mixer. Allow kids to taste this delicious batter (before adding carrots) so they'll want to taste the final product!

Once the kids leave the kitchen, fold in carrots!

Isn't this pretty?

Evenly divide batter into the two pans. I used my kitchen scales to make sure they were very even so they'd bake up to the same size layers. Be sure to hit the pans on the counter to release air bubbles before baking.

Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes.

Turn out onto a cooling rack lined with parchment. Allow to cool a couple of hours. Mine cooled overnight.

After we got home from church, I creamed the butter and cream cheese. As I was doing this, I realized I had no pecans!

Add vanilla and confectioner's sugar.

This icing was beautiful!

Put a little icing on the cake plate to act as a glue and hold the cake in place.

Ice the first layer.

Spread almost to the edge.

Place the second layer on top. Ice the top layer, pushing the icing down the sides,

If I had had some pecans, I would have toasted them, chopped them finely and then sprinkled them on top.

I put the cake in the fridge while we ate lunch to let the icing set up. It also helped it to slice more easily. This cake was delicious! It tasted like something my grandmother would have made! And since the kids had tried it before the carrots, and the carrots weren't very obvious, they tried it again and liked it! Miracles never cease!

I'm so glad you stopped by my neck of the woods!

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