Carrot Cake

A few days before my birthday, my husband asked what kind of cake I wanted. He said he was thinking about buying the same kind of carrot cake that we had as the top layer of our wedding cake. That cake was very delicious, but I had a better idea. I told him I wanted him to make me a cake... from scratch. None of this box cake business. I made a pretty big deal about it and told all of our friends that he was going to bake my birthday cake (which might be why some of the mysteriously couldn't make it to the birthday party). So just to let all of you know, MY HUSBAND CAN BAKE. We got the recipe from my aunt, who had made it for us for Christmas and he stayed up until midnight the night before my birthday preparing and baking. I didn't even help at all. Then he made a cream cheese frosting and a cream cheese filling to go inside. It was absolutely incredible.

2 cups sugar

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 extra-large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 cups grated carrots (less than 1 pound)

1 cup raisins (optional)

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Beat the sugar, oil, and vanilla together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the eggs, 1 at a time.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, add 1/2 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add the grated carrots, raisins, and walnuts to the remaining flour, mix well, and add to the batter. Mix until just combined.

Bake in two 8 or 9" spring form pans (or one layer at a time) for 50-60 minutes each. When they are completely cool, add the filling using this recipe and frost with this recipe.