Nothing says “I love you”  like saying to your child “eat another piece of cake”!  I have to tell a story on one of us sisters (ahem, Erin).  As a child, she refused to eat vegetables. She went to great and painful (for the rest of us) lengths to avoid eating almost every vegetable (and numerous fruits) known to man. Our poor mom resorted to extreme measures to get her to eat fruits and vegetables – especially vegetables which ranged from the more common, like trying to disguise them in cheese sauce, grinding them up and putting them in other things, bribing her with money, etc. Yes, you saw that correctly! She even offered to pay her to eat her vegetables. Oh, the misery for the rest of us to hear about this night after night, LOL!   This recipe was born out of our mom’s desperation to disguise vegetables in any way to get Erin her to eat them. It’s a simple snack cake with great flavor that has become a family favorite. All that agony paid off in the form of a new favorite treat for the rest of us. 

Ingredients:

8 T. butter, softened (1 stick)

2 c sugar

2 eggs

8 oz. baby food carrots (the pureed type)

1 (15 oz.) can carrots, drained and pureed

¼ c. milk

2 c., plus 2 T flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 ¼ tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. cloves

Preheat oven to 350˚F Grease and flour 9×13 inch pan and set aside.  

Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer.  Add eggs and carrots. 

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients then mix together. Mix dry ingredients  alternating with small portions of the milk (beginning and ending with flour) into creamed ingredients. 

Pour into prepared pan. 

Bake approximately 30- 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.   
When cooled, can dust lightly with powdered sugar, if desired.  We actually prefer it plain.