Three Is Better Than One

I’ll give you three guesses as to what cookbook I got this recipe out of, although if it takes you more than one, for shame! Ever since I got Dorie’s book, I’ve wanted to make this recipe. The picture in the book is absolutely mouth watering. And who doesn’t love a carrot cake, let alone three of them stacked on top of one another? It was something I couldn’t resist. The problem though, is that all of Dorie’s recipes are irresistible. This is problematic for two reasons: I eat while I bake, (is it wrong to eat icing with a spoon?) and then I eat the finished product too. There aren’t enough hours in a day for me to ski off all of those calories. Knowing that, however, doesn’t stop me from baking, it just slows me down a little. That’s why I like it when someone asks me to bake for them and they don’t care what it is, because then I still get to make what I want, (and sample along the way) but I’m not stuck with an enormous carrot cake sitting on the kitchen counter, calling out to be eaten. This particular carrot cake, thankfully, was taken to a potluck lunch.

Sampling while I bake isn’t the same as getting a big slice of the finished cake though. Since I wasn’t going to be at the potluck lunch that my cake was attending, I decided to steal a little of the batter and bake it in mini muffin cups to make a tiny carrot cake for me. I think I had more icing than cake but I still managed to make it six layers high. After the picture it promptly fell over.

Of course, as usual, I had to make some substitutions to the batter, not necessarily by choice. I ran out of cinnamon. That never happens. I always have cinnamon. Not this time. I added some cocoa powder, cardamom and nutmeg, somehow that equaled cinnamon to me. I added orange zest to the cream cheese icing just cause I felt like it and I had to substitute dried cherries for half of the raisins. Since when do I have dried cherries but no raisins? I’m telling you, this is insanity. Next thing you know I’ll be running out of sugar. The horror! I’m constantly running out of eggs though, it seems like I never have enough of them. I seriously need to consider acquiring some chickens. And possibly a cow for milk, I go through a lot of that too. If I had a cow I could also make butter. Why is unsalted butter so expensive? It would be cheaper if I made my own. Maybe I need a pig too. Then I could really make my own bacon, it’s not enough just to cure it myself. It would really be impressive if I raised my own piggy, letting him roam free with the chickens and the cow until he was juicy and plump and ready to be made into bacon… Oooh, the possibilities!

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Cake + Baking + Dorie Greenspan + Carrot Cake