Carrot cake is my favorite kind of cake almost everyday (if you catch me on a nostalgic day I’ll say funfetti). I love the moist sweetness and spice of carrot cake plus the surprise of raisins, and cream cheese frosting makes everything better. But it takes forever to peel and grate carrots-even with a food processor you still have to clean the food processor afterwards. This cake tastes surprisingly like carrot cake, without the texture of carrots. Next time I’ll definitely add raisins and tell people it’s carrot cake and see if anyone believes me. Good thing I have friends who don’t read this blog!
Another plus of this cake: two bowls! One if you’re real lazy! The recipe says “bars” but it really is just like a short cake. I made it in a fat cookie sheet with tall sides, but if you put it in a 9″x13″ it’d be a normal sheet cake size.
![Though pumpkin Be major part of this recipe, you have to watch out for the sharp (edges of the can) [this is a music theory joke]](https://bakingandmath.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/img_20141102_110652870.jpg)
Though pumpkin Be major part of this recipe, you have to watch out for the sharp (edges of the can) [this is a music theory joke]
Also, peeve: doesn’t it make more sense to mix dry ingredients with a whisk first, then mix the wet with that same whisk, then mix them together? Often when I read recipes it says to do the wet first. But then you have a wet whisk going into dry ingredients. Unless you’re fancy and use more than one whisk. Anyways, you mix up all the wet ingredients: pumpkin, egg, yogurt, oil, sugar. And separately, the dry: flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices.
Sometimes I whisk I had a pun-making machine. Then I remember I have myself!
If I remember right, the protagonist of A Wrinkle in Time gets made fun of in school a lot because her family’s a little crazy. I think a great nickname would be NutMeg.
Then mix the two together, and pour into a greased pan. Turns out I own some nonstick bakeware (whaaaat?) so I didn’t bother greasing. Or taking a photo.
I have a baby now, but of course he’s not in the kitchen when I cook- I keep him back in the living room where I can see him. Baby got back. (because I’m mix-a-lot here)
While that bakes, make the best part: cream cheese frosting! Beat up some butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and a bit of vanilla. This is now a thick buttercream frosting. Add some milk, a bit at a time, until it’s the right texture for you- this’ll change depending on humidity etc. I used two tablespoons.
Cream cheese is a pretty popular flavor, so if you want to choose a less traveled by option you could make all the difference via Frost-ing
After the cake cools a bit, frost it and cut it into bars.
This is the wrong order- frost, then cut.
This cake is SO DELICIOUS that 28 hours after baking it, I had one square left to take a picture of.
Pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing, adapted from Taste of Home
4 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/2 c plain yogurt
1 can pumpkin
2 c flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1 TB cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Optional: 1/2 c raisins and/or 1/2 c walnuts
1 package cream cheese (8 oz)
2 c powdered sugar
1/4 c butter, softened (1/2 stick)
1 tsp vanilla
1-3 TB milk
Preheat oven to 350. Mix first five ingredients together in a bowl. Separately, mix the dry ingredients. Then mix the two together. Add raisins and/or nuts, if using, now. Pour into a 15″x10″ pan if you have one, or a 9″x13″, or whatever you want. For the 15″x10″, bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.
Beat the cream cheese and butter together. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat. Then add milk 1 TB at a time until you have the consistency you want. Spread on bars.
Baking and Math 
I have a blog post about my recipe for carrot cake as well! Check it out 🙂
Looks beautiful! I like the bread knife recommendation