Carrot Cake

Yield: One 13" x 9" pan, a double-layer round cake, or a boatload of muffins
Cook Time & Temp: 350F for around 40 - 45 minutes (muffins take less)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of oil (or two sticks of butter, but butter will make it dense, not light)
  
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups of flour
• 1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. of baking doda
• 1 tsp. of vanilla
• 0.5 tsp of salt
• 0.25 tsp. of ground nutmeg
• 3 cups of shredded carrot
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• cream cheese frosting (optional)

Shredding the carrots is about the only thing I ever use the food processor for. It takes forever, if you use a box grater, but that'll work, too. Do not skimp on the butter/oil, because it'll be dry and inedible if you do. It sounds like a lot, but any less won't work well. I just eyeball the spices in the palm of my hand, but really do measure the oil, if I use it instead of butter.

As is usual, mix your wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls, then add the wet to the dry, stirring them together into a batter.

Dump out the stuff into a greased and floured pan. I suppose you could use cooking spray, but I've never tried that with carrot cake.

Let it bake at 350F for 40 minutes, then check on it. It might need a little longer. Use the toothpick or bamboo skewer test on it. If it's done, take it out, and let it cool.

Optional cream cheese icing:

• an 8 oz. pack of cream cheese
• half a stick of butter
• 2 tsp. of milk
• 1 tsp. of vanilla
• 4 cups of powdered sugar

It's a lot of powdered sugar. This frosting recipe can be cut in half, if you don't want a thick gooey mess on your carrot cake. You can skip it altogether, if you want, although, if I'm going to eat junk, I want it with the works, so to speak.