Carrot Cake with Lemon-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Somewhere over the past six years, I became the official “birthday baker” of the lab. With 20+ coworkers, it means there’s always an excuse to bake a cake! Peanut butter and chocolate are definitely the favored flavors in the lab, but once in a while, someone picks something new and different and it’s the perfect opportunity to create a new recipe. I was quite pleased when someone requested a carrot cake, as I have (shockingly) never made one before. I looked through a few different recipes and then just decided to make one on a whim as I went. The benefit to creating your own recipe is tailoring it to your exact tastes: in this case, lots and lots of cinnamon, very heavy on the carrots, light on the nuts, and absolutely no pineapple whatsoever. Baking for my coworkers also means I have a built in recipe-testing panel, and it seems like they all approved of this original creation!

    

Carrot Cake
(a Sugar Scientist original recipe)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 box (4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 3 cups packed shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, pudding mix, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk together to blend.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time and blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add half the dry ingredients, all the milk, and the rest of the dry ingredients. Beat each addition until just incorporated. Mix in carrots and pecans by hand.
4. Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and cool for 20 minutes. Invert cakes onto the rack, peel off the parchment, and cool completely before frosting.

Lemon-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 10 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in lemon juice and cinnamon.
2. Slowly incorporate powdered sugar. If frosting is too stiff, add in one tablespoon of milk.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Unless you live under a rock, in an air conditioned bubble, in Seattle, or in the southern hemisphere, you are well aware that it is blisteringly hot out there.  And living in a city that was essentially built on top of a swamp does nothing to help this situation (oh, the humidity!).

I’ve noticed a distinct polarization in heat-complaints on Twitter and Facebook, divided up by where one resides.  The city-dwelling folk, reliant on feet and sweltering un-air conditioned city busses, are dying.  We arrive to work drenched in sweat, light-headed, and longing for the cold temperatures of winter.  On the other hand, we have the suburbanites, who choose to complain about the city people complaining about the heat.  “It’s summer… it’s SUPPOSED to be hot!” or “I don’t understand what’s so bad, just stay inside” continue to pop up across my social media streams.

Ah, the luxury.  I have a legitimate phobia of having to move to the suburbs some day, but right now, it almost sounds appealing… leaving my central-air conditioned house, walking 10 steps to my air conditioned car, driving to work in climate controlled luxury, walking 200 steps across the parking lot, and heading straight into my air conditioned office (stopping, of course, to chat about how that dash across the parking lot was a little toasty).

But instead, the reality of a city girl is walking 1.5 miles each way with a heat index of 115.  It’s so humid, my hair hasn’t fully dried since last weekend.  And central air conditioning?  Who can afford such a luxury on a graduate student stipend?  I have a window unit in my bedroom which normally does okay, but it just can’t keep up with this kind of heat – running full blast when I’m home, it’s still stuck at 86 in here, but at least that’s livable.

The living room and kitchen, however?  Last night when I returned home, the thermostat registered at 102 degrees.  Inside.  In my living room.  So, I’ve decided to do what any poor graduate student does in an unfortunate situation – come up with a way to profit from it.

I’m going to open a sweat lodge.  I hear they’re all the rage among the new-age crowd.  What’s the going rate for a weekend of spiritual cleansing at a sweat lodge?  I’ll offer a 50% discount to come hang out on my couch this weekend.  Surely a couch is more comfortable than sitting on the dirt floor?  If 102 isn’t toasty enough, I can turn on the oven, which typically gets the kitchen up to around 115, and I can feed you baked goods while you sweat all the calories right back out! 

Need a cleansing cultural experience?  Stressed about an upcoming grant submission?  Need to pray to the manuscript gods while you wait to hear back from Reviewer #3?  Book an appointment today at Sugar Scientist’s Sweat Lodge!

4th of July

Even before I moved to DC, July 4th was probably my favorite holiday. I'm not super patriotic or gung-ho American, but I am thankful to live in a country where I have so much freedom (mostly, I love summer gatherings with friends and fireworks). This is my 10th year living in DC, and yet I've only been in DC on the 4th for three of those years -- mostly thanks to weddings dragging me across the country. I am sad to report that once again I am missing out on the fun, since I am still recovering from surgery and taking a temporary hiatus from my life in DC.

I am super bummed to miss out on the tradition of gathering for food with friends beforehand and walking down to the mall 15 minutes before the fireworks start. You sure can't beat living in DC for that kind of convenience -- tourists sit out all day to claim a spot, and we sneak in right as the first firework goes off. And then, while everyone elbows their way back to the metro, we just walk right down the street, back to a friend's apartment, and pass around the tequila.

In the meantime, these pictures from last year will have to suffice since I can't make it in person this year. My secret superhero alter-ego is The Human Tripod -- I love taking fireworks and night photography, because I can hold still enough to not need a tripod. I've read so many articles stating how a tripod is necessary when photographing fireworks, but I'm pretty content with my hand-held pictures. So, what's your superhero alter-ego?

Good Luck, Lo!

If you don't already read Dissecting Jane, I highly suggest that you add it to your RSS reader of choice. Jane is incredibly sweet and caring, both on her blog and Twitter and in real life.

Jane's sister Lo will be receiving a kidney from her father on Tuesday. In honor of Lo's recent birthday, Jane asked all her friends to gift her sister with prayer and mention it on their blogs.

Lo & Jane

Religion isn't something I openly discuss, and because of my own experiences I'm never comfortable asking for others to do anything remotely related to religion. But there is nothing controversial about thinking positive healing thoughts, so I'm going to ask everyone to do that, instead.

If prayer is your thing, go for it. If it isn't, just take a second to stop and thing a good, positive, happy kidney thought for Lo and her father.

And while you're at it, think about the people who mean so much to you that you'd give them a kidney, and let them know exactly how important they are to you. After watching a segment on the news a few weeks ago, Husband and I were discussing the individuals to whom we would each give a kidney, and without hesitation we both named our own best friends (in addition to immediate family, of course). So, Mark and Shannon, if either of you ever need anything, I'd give you the shirt off of my back or the kidney out of my retroperitoneum.