Spirit of the Mistress: Carrot Cake

For Madeline's 2nd birthday I made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Extremely tasty...you can tell she liked it as you can see in her photo (post carrot cake). Since her birthday had an Easter theme I went with carrot cake. Bunnies+Carrots+Madeline's Birthday=Carrot Cake. Everyone loved it...said it was the best carrot cake they ever had. My mother in law had real cream cheese icing for the first time in her life. She said the can kind can't compare to homemade! Thing of it is I forgot to take a picture of the cake..I have a video but not a picture :( . Anyhow here are some wonderful pictures of carrot cake I found on Flickr. In my perusing I found some real neat ideas like Carrot Cake French Toast with Berry Compote and Fuji Apples. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. How about Carrot Cake Truffles ? Or Carrot Cake Cheese Cake? Or do you need Carrot Cake to be Gluten Free but just as tasty?

Carrot Cake French Toast with Cinnamon Butter and Fig Syrup (as found www.abclocal.go.com)

Carrot Cake:

1 C. Whole Milk

2 Eggs

1/3 C. Butter, melted

1 C. Dark Brown Sugar

1½ C. All-Purpose Flour

2 t. Baking Powder

1 t. Baking Soda

½ t. Salt

2 t. Cinnamon

1¼ C. Raw Carrot, grated
Butter & flour a bread pan. In a large mixing bowl combine milk, eggs & butter & beat with a fork until well mixed. Then add the sugar & beat well. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon & then add them to the first mixture. Then stir in the carrot. Place mixture in to your butter pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until you can poke it with a skewer and it comes out clean. Remove from the oven & let cool for 1 to 2 hour before making the French toast.

French toast:

4 Eggs

1 C. Whole Milk

¼ C. Heavy Cream

1 t. Cinnamon

½ t. Salt
First, Place a large buttered skillet on medium heat. Then slice your carrot cake into ½" slices. In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients & whisk together until incorporated. Then dip your carrot cake into the batter, letting each side sit for 30 second to soak up the liquid. Wipe off any extra mixture & place the slices face down into the buttered skillet. Let each side cook for 4 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Cinnamon Butter:

1/2 C. Butter

4 T. Cinnamon

1 T. Sugar

½ t. Salt
With an electric mixer combine all ingredients and whip until butter is light and fluffy. Place butter into a bowl and serve tableside with the French toast.

FIG Jam:

2 C. pure maple syrup

2 T. fig jam
In a small saucepan, mix ingredients and heat until warm. Serve over French toast.
ABOUT FIG CATERING: