Carrot Cake & 1st Birthdays

Carrot Cake Decorated with Truck, Cookies for Dirt, Cookies for Logs, and a Pond which later became a watering hole for a Mini Chefs Alligator.





Happy Birthday Sam! My youngest nephew turned ONE on the weekend. To celebrate he had some of his friends over to play. I was pleased as an Aunt to help mom out and make his first birthday cake, a yummy carrot cake, at the request of mom. Carrot cake is one of my favorite cakes and I would take it over chocolate or vanilla any day. I like mine packed with ingredients so I added raisins, coconut and crushed pineapple, but omitted the nuts for the little tykes that were not yet allowed to eat them. My sister had a great idea to make it a "dirt" cake. She iced the cake with vanilla icing and crumbled oreo cookies on top for dirt then placed a bulldozer on the cake to look like they were picking up the dirt. She also had cookies for logs and a small pond. It was very cute and fitting for a boy.

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk (1%)
2 cups shredded carrots
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 x 8oz can well drained crushed pineapple
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup raisins (plump up by pouring boiling water over them and let sit for 15 min, drain)

In a large mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients and mix. Add eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla and beat until blended. Add in pineapple, coconut, and raisins.

Pour into greased 13x9x2 inche baking pan. Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes. Place cake on a cooling rack to cool. Frost when completely cool. Decorate as desired.