It’s Friday! Honestly, with my crazy work schedule on all days of the week, I have no sense of what day it is. Luckily, I have my swim workouts to keep me on track! But actually, that’s how I keep track of the days. Today was also the first women’s volleyball game that I worked! So far, we’re undefeated! Yeah, maybe we’ve only played one game so far but it doesn’t change the fact that as of right now, we’re undefeated! Day one of the LMU tournament was today, day two starts tomorrow at 6:30 am. Yay! Anyway, I didn’t have time to cook anything today because of work, but I do have a wonderful carrot cake recipe that I made during spring break! I remember craving carrot cake for the last few week of the quarter, so this is one of the first things I made when I got home on break. Oh my goodness, it was delicious. As the name suggests, it is super moist. The use of vegetable oil instead of butter is interesting, and gives it more of a quickbread texture than a cake, with a heavier, denser crumb, which I love. Also, the Greek yogurt keeps it nice and moist, and the cream cheese frosting is to die for. I love anything with cream cheese frosting. Red velvet cake is not my favorite, but since it usually involves cream cheese frosting I’ll sometimes take a piece just for that. Or take a piece and eat the frosting off the top. Is that bad? Maybe, but it’s the best part! Anyway, here’s the wonderful recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I even followed the instructions and waited a whole day before tasting. Since I didn’t taste it the first day, I can’t say for sure if it’s worth the wait, but it sure was delicious the day after baking!
Super Moist Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Cake
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup plain or vanilla Greek yogurt, or regular yogurt
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups grated carrots
3/4 cup pecan pieces
Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2-3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350˚F and grease a 9 inch springform pan.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar and oil. Beat in the yogurt until the mixture is gritty and thick, then add the eggs and vanilla.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined, then stir in the carrots and pecan pieces. Pour into the springform pan and bake for 30-38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake, so check the cake after 30 minutes. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting, beat together the cream cheese and butter using a mixer, until smooth. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add the vanilla, heavy cream, and pinch of salt, and beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached. Frost the cake with a nice, thick layer of frosting. Sprinkle with pecans and cinnamon sugar if desired. Enjoy!
Look at that lovely decorated top!
This cake is wonderfully moist. Look at those beautiful insides!
Ahh look at that thick layer of frosting. Cream cheese frosting heaven!
Now onto the swim for today! Today is the last day of extended hours at my favorite pool, so I took advantage of it and hopped in before work. Have I mentioned that it’s hot here? When I walked outside at 7:30 this morning in shorts and a t-shirt, I was sweating after two minutes. That is just not right. Getting in the pool at 8am should not feel like such a relief. Fridays in high school were usually Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Friday, where the coach would give us a framework of distances and intervals, and we made up our own set to fit that framework. I’ve taken that and morphed it into more of a Circuit Friday, since I like getting a chance to swim everything. Now, since I make up my own sets, technically everything is Choose-Your-Own-Adventure for me, so this was the adventure I chose for myself on this fine Friday morning!
Circuit Friday
200 free, 200 non-free, 200 pull
4×75 @1:10 build 50 free, 25 sprint kick
4x(200 IM @3:20, 2×50 free kick/swim @:50)
100 easy
10×50 @1:00 best average free
100 easy
2x(200 pull breathe 3-5-7-9 by 50 @3:00, 150 pull build by 50 @2:00, 100 pull negative split @1:30, 50 pull sprint @1:00)
200 easy choice
Total: 4000 yards
Time: 1 hr, 10 min
Dine with Deja 