Well, I haven’t officially joined up with the Tuesdays with Dorie group yet.  I wanted to make sure I could at least complete one of the weekly baking items (I’m very bad on follow through) before I signed up.  And I did complete Bill’s Big Carrot Cake.  Go me!

This was actually my first homemade carrot cake.  I’ve never had to make one because my Dad always buys them for me.  One time when my Dad and I were having dinner at a buffet, I must have gone back to get carrot cake about three times.  I couldn’t help it, it was *really* good there.  So, carrot cakes started showing up on my birthday, for the holidays, etc sort of as a gag gift.  Now, it’s tradition that one of these huge monstrosities shows up on all the important days throughout the year… complete with huge orange carrots all over it.  I’m so used to it now, I think I would be upset if for some reason I didn’t get one.

Anyway,  this cake had a lot going on with it in terms of how big the recipe seemed to be.   But once you get down to it, it really wasn’t that bad.  And because I’m terrible with following directions and I always skip ahead and miss something along the way, I really do appreciate how Dorie’s recipes are laid out and how detailed they are.  It makes everything seem so much easier to follow.

I baked a mini version since it’s only me I’m baking for around here and I had a terrible time getting the cake level and have it stand up straight.  You can tell from the picture that it was a little slanted (and that’s even after I straightened up the pic with editing software) but who cares about that, it tasted awesome!  I was kind of wary about using the coconut because I can’t stand the texture of it, but I really thought it was a nice addition.  This was a great version of Carrot Cake and if the gag with my Dad ever runs out, I’ll turn to this recipe to fill the void.

Oooh… yeah.  

Bill’s Big Carrot Cake was chosen by Amanda of Slow Like Honey. I absolutely love this blog!  

See you next week for the Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake!

K