The On-Going Saga of the Carrot Cake

When my daughter was married last August, the wedding cake of choice was a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. We went to great lengths to make sure the icing would be a real cream cheese frosting, and not simply the white wedding cake stuff. No problem, we were told. And because a carrot cake is so dense, the cake would not be the usual wedding cake tower, but 4 separate rounds of successively smaller sizes arranged beautifully on a table.

In the end, there were only a couple of things that weren't quite right about the carrot cake -- the frosting was not cream cheese frosting, the cake tasted more like a spice cake than a carrot cake, and the usual small round top that is saved for the bride and groom's 1st anniversary was never made. Instead, there were 3 equal-sized rounds that were all consumed at the wedding. But otherwise, the cake was fine -- we were quite full by the end of the dinner anyway.

We called the caterer after the wedding was over to ask for this small cake, and when we went to pick it up, it was a full 14" diameter carrot cake that could not possibly fit into our small freezer. So we ate some and gave the rest away, but still had no carrot cake to offer my daughter and her husband for their 1st anniversary celebration.

Now, as it happens, yesterday morning we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Maine for 2 days to visit my daughter and her husband and in-laws. And since it is close (within 1 month, anyway) to their 1 year anniversary, I decided I would bring a carrot cake to Maine for us all to celebrate together.

So I called a local ice cream parlor and ordered a 12" diameter carrot cake, which I picked up this afternoon. But when I got home and opened the box, the cake had clearly fallen apart -- icing was covering the sides of the box, and the cake was crumbling. So I took the cake back to the store and got my money back, went to a local bakery and got a cute 7" diameter carrot cake to take to Maine.

I have been laughing to myself all afternoon about the saga of the carrot cake. I hope it tastes as good as the one I make. This one that we are taking to Maine is a surprise for my daughter, so that adds to my enjoyment. But now I think maybe I'll get a food processor, and then the next time I want a carrot cake, I'll make it myself.