Carrot Cake

My husband had a really tough 4-day stint at work last week (lots of late nights and early risings), so I threw him a party. We had cookies and mini calzones with dipping sauce and popcorn and blush wine and his favorite cake: carrot cake. He liked the cake best.

Here's the recipe:

CARROT CAKE WITH MAPLE BUTTER FROSTING

OVEN: 350 degrees F

Ingredients: (for cake)
-1 lb carrots, shredded
-1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt
-2 teaspoons cinnamon
-4 eggs
-2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
-1 cup dark brown sugar*
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1 1/4 cup sunflower oil
-1 cup walnuts, chopped
-1/2 raisins**

*I actually had less brown sugar than I thought and was caught with only 1/2 cup. The cake was still great with half the amount of brown sugar called for. I made no compensatory adjustments to the granulated sugar.
**I used 1 cup of dried currants instead - they disperse the flavor more because they're much smaller than raisins.

Ingredients: (for frosting)
-6 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature)
-3 cupts confectioners (powdered) sugar
-1/4 cup maple syrups

1. Line an 11x8" rectangular cake pan (I used a glass Pyrex pan and it worked fine) with wax paper and grease it. Grate carrots and set aside.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a bowl. Set aside.

3. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs until lended. Add the vanilla, sugars and oil; beat to incorporate. Add teh dry ingredients in 3 batches, folding in well after each addition.

4. Add the carrots, walnuts and raisins. Fold in thoroughly.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cake springs back when touched lightly - 40-45 minutes. (I used the faithful toothpick test as well - I'd reccomend it.) Let stand for 10 minutes, then unmold and transfer to a rack.

6. For the frosting, cream the butter with half the sugar until soft. Add the syrup, then beat in the remaining sugar until blended.

7. Frost the cake when cool.

All from scratch - and a sure-fire way to get some carrots into your family. Mmmm....