Monday, October 13, 2008

Poverty Party Needs Cake

Do you like Carrot Cake? I do.

Have you shopped for a Carrot Cake lately?

$150 Neiman Marcus Carrot Cake. That's more than my Cable/Internet bill!
$57 Black Hound NY Carrot Cake. That's a tank full of gas!
$12.99 Winn Dixie grocery store bakery carrot cake. That's 4 pounds of pork chops!

What's a cake-craving girl to do? She bakes her own! So here's my recipe for 3 Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Disclaimer #1: I love to cook and bake. I also have a Costco membership and buy most of my baking supplies there, or stock up when the grocery store has a good sale. With the Holidays coming up, the stores are already putting baking supplies on sale, some sale prices will be in effect until Jan.

Disclaimer #2: I'm in love with my little Oskar food processor. If I had to grate the carrots by hand I'm not sure I would tackle this project.

Here's the breakdown of cost: Flour (9 cents), Cooking Oil (50 cents) Sugar (50 cents),Cinnamon (umm, maybe a penny), Eggs (47 cents), Carrots ($1), Pineapple (75 cents), Cream Cheese ($1.50) Confectioner Sugar ( 89 cents) Vanilla extract (pennies).

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups of flour
3 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 and 1/2 cups of cooking oil
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
2 cups of grated carrots
1 8oz can of crushed pineapple (don't drain!)
Optional: walnuts and/or raisins. My daughter likes neither so I left them out.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and Flour 3 round 8-inch cake pans

Blend Oil, Sugar and Eggs. Blend in Flour, baking powder,salt and Cinnamon. Fold in Carrot and the can of pineapple including the juice.

Divide evenly into the 3 cake pans. Bake 50 to 60 minutes at 325. Cool in pans for 15 minutes, remove from pans and completely cool. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting: Whip 8 0z of confectioner sugar, 1 tsp butter or margarine, 1 tsp of vanilla, 8 oz of softened cream cheese. Frost between layers and top of cake. I usually don't frost the sides.

This cake and frosting is EXTREMELY rich. We've been slivering it for 3 days now and there is still a LOT of cake under the dome!

VOILA! 3 Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for about $5.71

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay - a baking poverty party partner! Woo - hoo!

Monnik said...

yum. that sounds tasty. I've never been one to purchase baked goods, but really? You can buy one at Neiman Marcus for $150??? What the heck?!

BOSSY said...

Go Oskar!

Mrs. G. said...

Real ingredients for less--what a concept. This sounds delicious.

Anonymous said...

YUM! I love carrot cake and I am going to try your recipe soon! Thanks:)

blackbird said...

ohthatsoundsgood.

Sara said...

this looks ooooooooooooh so good! thanks for sharing!
i'll make it as soon as i can afford to buy a tank of gas for my car.