For someone who bakes as much as I do, it is impossible to choose an all-time favorite dessert.  It depends on the season, it depends on my mood, it depends on my stress level, and so on.  But as far as cakes go, I do have an all-time favorite: carrot cake.

I will pick it over all cakes when ordering at a bakery or a restaurant.  If I ever get married, I’ve already decided that my wedding cake will be carrot cake.  If you consider I’ve already make Brown Sugar Carrot Bread and Carrot Fig Muffins, I suppose it’s not a surprise.  But what is surprising is that I have never made my own carrot cake – until now.  Another carrot cake lover at work just had a birthday, and that gave me the perfect excuse to make a carrot cake for the first time.

Also not surprising is that for my first carrot cake, I used Gesine Bullock Prado’s recipe, which turned out beautifully.  It’s a basic recipe but a truly great one.  Feel free to add chopped walnuts to the batter, or press walnuts to the sides of the cake after icing it with the billowy, rich cream cheese frosting.  Just don’t add raisins; in my opinion, raisins only ruin an otherwise-perfect carrot cake.

I’m sorry – I know it’s only January, and I’m encouraging you to toss out your pesky “this year is the year I’m going to get healthy and lose weight!” resolutions.  But if you limit yourself to one small slice, you’ll be fine.

But good luck with that.

One year ago: Black Beans and Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa and Minestrone and Meatball Soup
Two years ago: Hot Chocolate, Cuban Black Beans, and Moussaka

Carrot Cake

Recipe by Gesine Bullock-Prado, recipe can be found on her blog and in her fun, charming book My Life From Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time