Greetings fellow bakers,

I have been asked to make a carrot cake for my sister-in-law. She has some
requests which are making it a little difficult for me. I hope someone
here can provide me with a recipe that will meet her needs.

Obviously, it should be moist. She does not want oranges, raisins or
pineapple in the thing. Additionally, people with nut allergies will be
consuming it. So no nuts. There has also been a request for it to be spicy
(nutmeg, all spice, cloves, etc.).

She also wants it to be trimmed with gingerbread men. I have a good recipe
for gingerbread. My smallest cutter is around 3.5 inches high so the cake
should be around 3.5 inches high.

Finally, it should serve 50 people... it is her wedding cake. The wedding
is January 6th, 2004. This means I have to have it done by then.
Obviously, I'll want to do a trial run before the wedding.

Thanks in advance,
Darrell Grainger

P.S. Because the wedding is on a Tuesday and I work full time, I'd like to
make the cake on Sunday night. Will it last for two days?

--
Send e-mail to: darrell at cs dot toronto dot edu
Don't send e-mail to

"Darrell Grainger"
> Finally, it should serve 50 people... it is her wedding cake. The wedding
> is January 6th, 2004. This means I have to have it done by then.
> Obviously, I'll want to do a trial run before the wedding.

Personally, I'd run screaming in the opposite direction. Could she have
given you any less notice?!

Does she want a carrot cake or a spice cake? Round or sheet? Multilayered?
What kind of icing? Trimmed with gingerbread men?! How about a gingerbread
cake, then?

There is a tomato-based spice cake that might fit the bill. It would also
hold well and become moister by the big day. It could still be a problem,
though, if you're dealing with allergies.

(Darrell Grainger) wrote in message >...
> Greetings fellow bakers,
>
> I have been asked to make a carrot cake for my sister-in-law. She has some
> requests which are making it a little difficult for me. I hope someone
> here can provide me with a recipe that will meet her needs.
>
> Obviously, it should be moist. She does not want oranges, raisins or
> pineapple in the thing. Additionally, people with nut allergies will be
> consuming it. So no nuts. There has also been a request for it to be spicy
> (nutmeg, all spice, cloves, etc.).
>
> She also wants it to be trimmed with gingerbread men. I have a good recipe
> for gingerbread. My smallest cutter is around 3.5 inches high so the cake
> should be around 3.5 inches high.
>
> Finally, it should serve 50 people... it is her wedding cake. The wedding
> is January 6th, 2004. This means I have to have it done by then.
> Obviously, I'll want to do a trial run before the wedding.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Darrell Grainger
>
> P.S. Because the wedding is on a Tuesday and I work full time, I'd like to
> make the cake on Sunday night. Will it last for two days?

I did a google search and came up with this site. Check out this
recipe. You might cut down on the cooking oil called for, and add
applesauce for moistness.
http://lisamariebabik.com/ks/000162.html

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003, Pennyaline wrote:

> "Darrell Grainger"
> > Finally, it should serve 50 people... it is her wedding cake. The wedding
> > is January 6th, 2004. This means I have to have it done by then.
> > Obviously, I'll want to do a trial run before the wedding.
>
> Personally, I'd run screaming in the opposite direction. Could she have
> given you any less notice?!

Normally she would have given me more time. We all knew she was getting
married but she didn't expect to get married within the next year.
Unfortunately, her fiance is back from the army for Christmas. He got his
orders and he is getting shipped to Afganistan. He will not be back for a
while; they decided that they will get married before he gets shipped out.

> Does she want a carrot cake or a spice cake? Round or sheet? Multilayered?
> What kind of icing? Trimmed with gingerbread men?! How about a gingerbread
> cake, then?

She is trying to satisfy everyone. Some want it a little spicy (not just
cinnamon; maybe all spice, nutmeg, etc.). They are not sure exactly what
they want. No nuts is a must as a few people in the family have very
serious nut allergies.

Because of the short notice she is not picky about the shape of the cake.
I have a recipe for gingerbread cookies that she loves. She thinks it
would look cute to have gingerbread men covering the sides of the cake. I
think she would be okay if I had to make one cake that looks good and one
that is just a layer cake or a bunch of square cakes and one that is for
display.

> There is a tomato-based spice cake that might fit the bill. It would also
> hold well and become moister by the big day. It could still be a problem,
> though, if you're dealing with allergies.

No one has tomato allergies. There is only shellfish and nut allergies.
The people will shellfish allergies are not serious enough for anyone to
care. There are people who have anaphylactic shock if exposed to nuts.

Someone has been good enough to send me a link to a recipe that seems to
meet my needs. It is http://lisamariebabik.com/ks/000162.html. I am off
work for a week. I'm going to be be taking this week to do a little
experimenting. Any friend not going to the wedding gets to try my
experiments (I don't want the wedding guests to be sick of carrot cake by
next week).

--
Send e-mail to: darrell at cs dot toronto dot edu
Don't send e-mail to

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003, Rose wrote:

> (Darrell Grainger) wrote in message >...
> > Greetings fellow bakers,
> >
> > I have been asked to make a carrot cake for my sister-in-law. She has some
> > requests which are making it a little difficult for me. I hope someone
> > here can provide me with a recipe that will meet her needs.
> >
> > Obviously, it should be moist. She does not want oranges, raisins or
> > pineapple in the thing. Additionally, people with nut allergies will be
> > consuming it. So no nuts. There has also been a request for it to be spicy
> > (nutmeg, all spice, cloves, etc.).
> >
> > She also wants it to be trimmed with gingerbread men. I have a good recipe
> > for gingerbread. My smallest cutter is around 3.5 inches high so the cake
> > should be around 3.5 inches high.
> >
> > Finally, it should serve 50 people... it is her wedding cake. The wedding
> > is January 6th, 2004. This means I have to have it done by then.
> > Obviously, I'll want to do a trial run before the wedding.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Darrell Grainger
> >
> > P.S. Because the wedding is on a Tuesday and I work full time, I'd like to
> > make the cake on Sunday night. Will it last for two days?
>
> I did a google search and came up with this site. Check out this
> recipe. You might cut down on the cooking oil called for, and add
> applesauce for moistness.
> http://lisamariebabik.com/ks/000162.html

Thanks Rose. This looks perfect. I have been searching the web since I
posted the message. I thought I was going to have to try modifying some
other recipe (I'm good when I have a recipe to follow; making changes is
still scary to me). I think I have found over 5000 carrot cake recipes
(including numerous hits on a Vulcan Wedding Cake) but none quite worked
for me. Even the frosting looks pretty good.

Thanks again!

--
Send e-mail to: darrell at cs dot toronto dot edu
Don't send e-mail to