Bliss-ful Carrot Cake
I love food. I love baking. Ergo, I love recipes. 
Also, ergo, I need to exercise a lot more. Soon.
But before then, I’d like to share one of my favorite recipes with you, on this inaugural Favorite Recipes Friday post. My latest book, His Reluctant Rancher, continues the story of Three River Ranch. Two of the characters that populate this world are twins Bliss and Blythe, older women who wander around looking after people, scolding and feeding them as they see fit.
They also nurse a mysterious grudge between them, which will be revealed in time!
In His Reluctant Rancher, Bliss brin
gs the Gamble family a carrot cake that she says is far better than the one Blythe serves at her bed & breakfast. Now, I don’t know Blythe’s recipe, but I do know this one, and it truly rocks. It’s the cake I made for birthdays when my girls were small. Because it’s so chock full of nutrition, I could relax in the knowledge that even if it’s all they ate all day, it would be okay.
“I Wish I Knew How to Quit You, Wheat!”
NOTE: since I first wrote this, I’ve read Wheat Belly, the premise of which is that wheat is responsible for most – if not all – of modern humanity’s pain and suffering. You know, diabetes, high cholesterol, painful joints, fuzzy brain, bad hair, bad moods, slow drains, slugs and possibly that irritating syndrome in which whatever line you’re in always moves slower than the ones beside you. Aaaaanyway. Wheat. I figure I’m carb sensitive but am not quite ready to part with it entirely. We’re working on a trial separation, a weaning situation. The recipe below has been modified to reflect this.
This is from the La Leche League Whole Foods Cookbook. Can you tell that my girls liked to work alongside me? I’ve modified it somewhat, as I almost always do, but here’s the gist:
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I used 1 1/4 cups flour, and 1 cup coconut flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cups oil (I use canola or olive)
3/4 cup liquid honey
5 eggs
3 cups grated carrot (or zucchini, which I haven’t tried, but would probably be great, too.)
1 cup canned unsweetened crushed pineapple (save the juice for the frosting)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Stir it all together. Put into greased and floured pan of your choice. (This makes a fairly large cake.) Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool, then frost with cream cheese icing. (Cream cheese, pineapple juice and enough icing sugar to make it taste good.) Then I covered the top with coconut because the frosting seemed a little gooey.
Boom. Bliss-ful Carrot Cake.
Best. Grade 12 History Project. EVER.
- At January 23, 2012
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Roxanne Writes On
0
A+ for a creative – if slightly disturbing – history assignment. And major props to the teacher for sending students out into the Twitterverse.
1. Unit 4 (Bay of Pigs)
@Castro#1
Slaughtered the one and only CIA! Sent them running with their tails between their legs. #Cuba4THEWIN
@CubaCandy45
DATS WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ‘BOUT!! #Cubarocks #HowdoesthatfeelUSA
@Castro#1
Dear God… #WHATHAVEWEDONE
@KenDoll4President
Sorry you had to find out this way. #CubaStillRocks
@KenDoll4President
Whoopsies! #ThatAwkwardMomentWhen…
@UScitizens
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?! #You’reinBIGtrouble #JKcomeforwardPLS
@KenDoll4President
Ummmm… #HonestMistake
@USmilitary88
Oooh, you’s in trooouubbllee… #Wouldn’tWantToBeAmericanRightNow
@USmilitary88
Deep trouble! I feel ya, man. JK you suck!! Oink, oink!! #AndSoItWasDecreed…
@Castro#1
FML. #Life.Over.
2. Unit 5 (6 day war)
@MosheMan
Greatest territories gained by Israel in SIX FREAKING DAYS!! Where the party at?? #WE’RENUMBER1
@I’mIsraeliyo666
Call Guinness, this has to be a record. #kickingsome@$$
@MosheMan
Fo Shizzle. #ICanFinallyPutInThatPool
@MosheMan
WTF WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?! #OutOfTheLoop #USUCK
@Nasser4life
Snooze you lose, bubba! #AwkwardButAwesome
@MosheMan
IMMA KILL U #RevengeIsBestServedANYTIME
@Nasser4life
Use proper English, please. #HateAbbreviations
@MosheMan
You know where you can shove that? You stupid little—
@Nasser4life
Whoaa, no need for name calling! Let’s be civil here. #Didn’tYourMotherEverTellYou…
@MosheMan
…Eyepatch. #GoingDownWithABang
@Nasser4life
OKAY NOW YOU’RE ASKING FOR IT. #KeepMyEyepatchOutOfIt!!
@Nasser4life
Sooo…we kind of have no place to live… #Nomorepovertypls
@EgyptCitizens
I’m getting to it. #JUSTGIVEMEAMINUTE
@MosheMan
What’s all this then? #WWIIIPLEASE
@USSRpeeps111
Nothing!! Absolutely nothing!! #Can’tAnyoneKeepASecretAnymore
@USAladiesandgents
Awwkkwwaarrdddd… #CloseCall
3. Unit 6 (Rosa Parks)
@XMan666
Soooo I got kicked off the bus today because I wouldn’t give up my seat to this middle aged white woman with a serious stick up her @$$. #FML
@RosesNParks
Ouch. We should go protest!! #TimeIsNow
@BlackPantherBros99
Dude. No one’s blowing up anything. Chill. #NotThatMad
@RosesNParks
No violence? I applaud you. #Let’sTalkAboutOurFeelings
@MLKjr
Omg can we just stop with the sweet talk already? Or is the plan to kill all the racists with diabetes? #TalkingDoesNOTHING
@BlackPantherBros99
The goal is to not kill anything, young grasshopper. #UseYourWords
@MLKjr
…..What? #WTFutalkingabout
@RosesNParks
WTF why didn’t you just give up your seat?? #PeepleRStoopid
@IWANTYOURSEATlady60
STFU AND GTFO. #WellSaid
If You’ve Ever Considered Homeschooling Your Kids… Watch This!
- At July 23, 2011
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Life, Roxanne Writes On
- 0
Or, if you’re an artist … or a lateral-thinker … or an entrepreneur… or you feel you were under-served by the public school system … or you’re a teacher, passionate about education, wondering why it doesn’t work for everyone…. or you just like cool cartoons, you’ve got to see this. It’s a little long for the modern attention-span, but trust me, it’s worth it.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&w=560&h=349]
Our three daughters stayed out of the system until grades 11, 11 and 10. For years, I had the faint, secret fear that I’d ruined their lives, that they’d all end up living in our basement, social misfits who couldn’t go to university because they didn’t know the multiplication tables and had never done macaroni collages. What was I THINKING???
Being me, I naturally took it to The Next Level. I envisioned my beautiful, talented daughters popping out illegitimate, cross-eyed babies – between cigarettes and during commercial breaks – who they’d fill with Coke and Twinkies before sending them upstairs to stay with Granny while they went off to pursue their careers as Wal-Mart greeters.
I think there was banjo music playing in this scenario.
Anyway. A little medication tweak and extensive therapy got me off the roof and it’s all okay now. The youngest is entering her senior year in high school, an Honours student. The oldest will graduate from UBC next year with her BA in English Lit, and plans to go on to teachers’ college. Our middle daughter, after getting halfway through her Bachelor in Fine Arts, is switching gears and entering nursing school. Both the older two have held down part-time jobs while studying. Both have struggled to figure out what they want to do with their lives, at least for now. Both have emerged victorious. I know the youngest will go through a similar journey, and will find her own way, too.
They may be a little fuzzy on math at times, but hey, there’s an ap for that. And being our daughters, I expect medication and extensive therapy may be in their futures, as well. It’s okay. I started saving for that years ago.
The main thing is this: they know who they are. That’s tough to learn in a factory school.