Snackin'-Dino'-Carrot-Cake

It takes a lot of self control for me to let my kids make and decorate the cake instead of me. It also takes great humility to post it on the blog. You know...since I'm supposed to be all "professional" and what not. It may just be all the years of baking for a living and that over whelming urge to have everything look perfect. However, at this point most of you know that my baking and cooking this summer includes the kids and getting them in the kitchen. I want them to learn kitchen math and how to measure. So...meet the carrot cake of love. Little Face was in charge. This hearty and filling carrot cake is one that I have really enjoyed for years. It's simple enough that the kiddos can make it, and good enough to eat that adults won't mind it. It uses whole wheat flour and a lot of carrots, so it really is a notch healthier than regular carrot cake. Ace, who is not a big cake eater, had 4 or 5 pieces. I count that as a good baking day if he will go nuts like that.

First gather your ingredients. In this case, the kids gathered the ingredients and measure them. This way they can really see it first hand. I adapted a recipe that I got out of a church cookbook and had around since I was a teenager.

You will need:

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup apple sauce if you want it lower fat)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour (cake or pastry flour)
1T cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

3 cups grated carrots
1 cup nuts or raisins (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees or open your Solar Oven and get it heating up. Combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil with a wire whisk until light lemon color.

Add flour, cinnamon, soda, and salt. Mix just until combined.

Add the carrots. I used yellow and orange carrots. Just for fun. If you use nuts or raisins...add them here too.

Once mixed, pour it into a greased 9 inch by 13 inch cake pan. Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Solar oven took about one hour.
We waited about 30 minutes and then frosted with a light cream cheese frosting. The boys wanted to make it look like a dinosaur...so we gave it an almond spine. If you want a lower fat experience, try it unfrosted. It is still really good.

Make sure you have a couple gallons of milk around.

There you go.