Daily Dish - Carrot Cake

Having mastered the pumpkin muffins that I shared last year, round 2 in my mission to learn how to bake is carrot cake.  Yes, I could have gone for something less involved, but where's the fun in that?  I'm still amazed that I actually made this, didn't burn it, or have it collapse on me.  It's not the most beautiful thing I've ever produced (i.e. I have no frosting skills) but it tastes damn good, so we'll call it a success!

I reviewed quite a few recipes online and read some of the comments/suggestions, and came up with the following recipe. Enjoy...

Carrot Cake 4 eggs 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 cups all purpose flour 2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp ground cinnamon 3 cups grated carrots 1 cup chopped pecans 8oz can pineapple (drained) 1 cup raisins Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour two 9" pans.   Beat eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until smooth. Stir in carrots, raisin and pineapple. (I included a couple of teaspoons of the pineapple juice). Fold in pecans. Bake for 40 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean). Cool in pan for 10 mins, then transfer to cooling rack to let cool completely. Frost!  (I used a cream cheese frosting recipe that I also found online, below). Frosting  1/2 cup butter 8oz cream cheese 4 cups confectioners sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract

Next up, I'll probably go back to something more basic. I sense an oatmeal raisin cookie in my future...once I've eaten all the carrot cake that is!