Carrot Cake

By Marvin Morales

My mom is a phenomenal baker and has always been baking breads and cakes. She learned this recipe from an old cook book when she was in a teenager in Guatemala. At some point as a kid, I decided to help her with making carrot cakes and eventually started doing them on my own. Now, it is my go-to potluck/holiday gift to my friends and loved ones, and it’s known in my circles that I make Carrot Cake! So shoutout to my mom and I hope you can use this for your next event or baking day. 😊 My biggest tip for baking is to not eyeball any of the measurements; baking is like a science and if you do not follow the correct measurements, you are subject to messing up your creation! 

Ingredient List

3 cups of carrots (about half a bag of full-sized carrots) 
3 cups of flour (bleached) 
3 eggs  
1.5 cups of sugar  
1.5 cups of vegetable oil  
2 tsp cinnamon  
2 tsp of baking soda  
1 tsp salt  
1/4 cup of any rum (preferably spiced rum, I used Captain Morgan this time) 

Let’s get to baking…

Step 1: Cut each end off the carrots and use a peeler to peel the outer layer, until the carrots are smooth and clean.  

Step 2: Shred the carrots using the cheese grater side of the grater (the oval divots looking side) until you have number of cups of carrots needed for the portion you desire.

Step 3: In a bowl/container of choice, sift a large amount of flour. Then, in a separate bowl/container, measure out number of cups of sifted flour. Leave some flour for Step 9. 

Step 4: Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Then in a large mixing bowl, add the eggs, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and vegetable oil (use glass measuring cup for this) 

Step 5: Wash your hands and start mixing the ingredients stated in Step 4 by hand until the mixture becomes thick and looks brown and tan. Make sure there are no clumps of sugar in the mixing bowl. (You can use a mixing machine if you'd like, however it is harder to gauge the mix consistency when using a mixing machine and mixing by hand is just more fun). 

Step 6: In portions, start pouring and mixing in the sifted flower into the large mixing bowl, until all the flour is mixed well in the bowl. Make sure there are no clumps of flour in the mixing bowl.  

Step 7: In portions, start pouring and mixing the shredded carrots into the large mixing bowl. The moisture of the carrots will soften the mixture and make it easier to mix by hand 

Step 8: Add the rum to the mixture, and continue to mix until everything is well mixed (use glass measuring cup for this) 

Step 9: Wash your hands, then prepare baking molds by lining them with butter and the leftover sifted flour you probably will have. This is so you do not need to use wax paper and the bread will not stick to the mold. 

Step 10: Add mix to molds and do your best to make sure the mixture is evenly spread in the molds. Make sure they are not overfilled with mixture, I recommend only filling it to half of the depth of your mold. Once they are in the molds, insert them to the bottom row of your oven. 

Step 11: Bake for 35-40 minutes depending on your preference in how golden you'd like your bread. At the 25-30 minute mark, switch your molds to the top row of your oven so the top of the bread can bake for the final 10 minutes. 

Step 12: Once the time has passed, check to see if your bread is ready by sticking a butter knife through the top of the bread. If the knife comes out with some unbaked mixture, leave your bread in the oven for a few minutes until you try again, and no mixture residue is on the knife. 

Step 13: Enjoy!