Today is Foodie Friend Friday here and I couldn’t be happier to introduce you to my friend Laura. She is my friend and my family…the sister of my husband’s brother’s wife. 🙂 Well, she makes good food and she is funny so I call her family. Laura also has a blog of her own that you should check out if you are into making cool things with paper and scissors. Today she made you Pioneer Woman’s Carrot Cake! Enjoy!

{Laura from Paper Eudaimonioa}

Hi there! My name is Laura, and I am Katrina’s sister-in-law’s sister. Take a moment with that; I’ll wait.

Not only is Katrina my sister’s sister-in-law, but she’s also my friend. Let me tell you that I spend a good portion of my day drooling over food blogs, wishing I could eat the food on these things. THIS food blog is especially special to me, though, because sometimes, I DO get to eat the food on here! I love it!

Anyways, months and months ago, Katrina asked me to guest post on her blog.  I was over the moon and honored to be asked. I knew exactly what I was going to bake – my (okay, PW’s) carrot cake. It was just in time for Easter, and it would be a perfect contribution to her blog. Since my own blog is about papercrafting, I spent some time making little Easter-y accoutrements for my carrot cake. Since it’s now October, I think you can predict how this story ends. I got busy, Katrina told me not to stress about it, I stressed about it, and then put it all on the backburner to move to a new house.

So today, as I was peeling the most giant bag of carrots I’ve ever bought, I began thinking that I had too many carrots. Yes, there is such a thing. Not wanting them to go to waste, I decided to make some carrot cake. And of course, I thought of Katrina’s blog, and decided to finally make good on my months-old commitment.

I think that’s about all the back-story you need, dear reader.  Let’s bake some carrot cake!

2c sugar
1c vegetable oil
4 eggs
2c flour
1/2t salt
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1t cinnamon
2c grated carrots

1 recipe cream cheese icing (follows)

Gather your ingredients, and if you’re anything like me, go borrow an egg from your new neighbor (I seriously had to do this. I feel like we had to break the ice somehow, right?). Grate the carrots while silently cursing yourself for breaking your food processor and never replacing it; and grate them by hand with your less-than-adequate Ikea grater:

Seriously, why do I still have this thing?

Give your poor arm a break from all the grating and finish the Heath bar your child took one bite of and decided he didn’t like:

(These are all things I actually did, and I felt like I should share with you the process I went through to make this cake. I want you to be successful.)

Combine the eggs, sugar, and oil. Sift in the flour, salt, soda, powder, and cinnamon.

Mix thoroughly and then add the grated carrots. Turn out into a greased and floured pan. Have you tried this stuff?:

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Baker’s Joy is a sign that God loves bakers and wants us to be happy.

I used a Bundt pan, but you can use any pan you please.

Put this in your oven for 20-50 minutes (depending on what pan you use) at 350. Also, before you put this into the oven, don’t forget to silently curse yourself for forgetting to take the pizza stone out of the oven before you preheated it (be sure to have the cake pan in hand while you pull out the stone, too). Full disclosure.

Your kitchen will smell wonderful. Can you smell that? It smells of warm cinnamon, wrapped in a mixture of gooey cake batter and the soft sweetness of carrots. For me, the smell of it baking is half of the enjoyment.<

Let this stand for ten or so minutes, and if you’re using a funky pan, turn your cake out. There’s no need to turn it out if you used a traditional cake pan. Unless you want to. Then you can. I won’t judge. Probably.

I lost daylight by this time, so please forgive my horrible, over-exposed, flashy photos. Look at that cinnamon-flecked texture.

While that’s cooling, put the frosting together.

Here’s the lineup:

8 oz softened cream cheese

1 stick of unsalted butter
1lb confectioner’s sugar

2T pure vanilla (I love Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking some up. {Name that movie})

1c chopped pecans (Or don’t. I usually don’t because the non-nut-eaters tend to complain louder than the nut eaters. You know who you are.)

Combine all this and spread it on a cooled cake (I am always way too impatient and put it on the while it’s still warm and then the icing melts off. Don’t let this happen to you.)

It didn’t look like this for long. The melt-y frosting puddled. But it still tastes wonderful.

Look at that.

Look. At. That. How have you gotten this far without this cake in your life?

Lastly, cut yourself a piece. P-Dub always has some pretty piece of china laying around to present her finished food on. Let’s be real. We both know ours will look more like this:

For any of you non-parents, this is a Zoo Pal. This particular one is a bumble bee. I’m not sure what year this pattern was released, but I can tell you the cake tastes wonderful on it.Happy Baking, and thanks for having me!

You can find a printable version of the recipe here on Pioneer Woman.

See, I told you that you would love her. Don’t forget to stop by Paper Eudaimonia if you’re into being crafty. Some of my favorite things from Laura’s blog:

click on the picture to be taken to her tutorial