Spiced Carrot Cake

I’m FINALLY back with some baking! I think I’ll start making Wednesday my baking day…let’s see how that schedule holds up. I’m planning to get back to cooking on the weekends and some continuation of the A Bite of China Project! Just need to find some time to head out to the Chinese groceries soon 🙂

So I had a few recipes I was looking for and I ended up looking up Martha Stewart’s Easter dessert slides and this  Spiced Carrot Cake came up.  The other choice would’ve been Oatmeal Shortbread, but I’ve been doing  A LOT of shortbread in the last few baking posts that I wanted to switch it up a bit.  So here it is!

The recipe is right here: http://www.marthastewart.com/315931/spiced-carrot-cake?center=276968&gallery=275096&slide=262144

There were some minor modifications made. For one, I don’t own a round pan so its square.  Thats just aesthetics, of course.  I’m sure it won’t make much difference to the taste.  Right now, my house is filling up with baked goods smell again and this smells delicious 🙂

Fresh out of the oven!

Okay, focus back to the changes I made.

– I used the 1 teaspoon cinnamon instead of 1/2 teaspoon cardamom

– Since I’m lactose intolerant, I don’t have any yogurt, so I replaced it with almond milk.  I was going to use water but then I felt that almond milk may probably provide a thicker complex to it, making it resemble the consistency of yogurt more.  It didn’t seem to make much of a difference.  Of course, my second option could have been soy milk as well.

-I omitted the glaze or confectioners`sugar since it was already sweet enough and we have balanced lifestyle to work on 😉

This one is a winner in terms of carrot cake.  It smells amazing, it looks awesome, the texture is fantastic.  The only thing I would change when I bake it again (and I know I will) its probably less sugar.

What difference in taste will happen with using cinnamon over cardamom? I have never used cardamom so I don’t own any.  Definitely down to try it if it is enhances the taste or gives it a little something special.

I want to continue with some Easter baking..what do you suggest? Cupcakes? Spring Sugar Cookies? Shortbread?