Laura Makes Carrot Cake

Quite often, before I make a trip home, my dad finds a baking recipe or two for me to try out when I get back. Last week he mentioned that he found an awesome recipe for a carrot cake with coconut frosting in the LCBO Food & Drink magazine, which always has incredible food ideas (http://www.lcbo.com/fooddrink/index.shtml). I'm not usually a big carrot cake kinda gal; It seems like more of a breakfast food to me. But I was intrigued, and the description sounded delectable.
When I got home, I looked at the magazine and the recipe that is called: "Hawaiian Carrot Cake with Coconut Icing". And it looks like this:

Looks nice, right? Let me include the description because its really good:

Coconut and pineapple create a sublime island flavour in this four-tiered beauty. It's as much at home on a fancy dessert spread as it is for a casual cake and coffee get-together. Keep it in mind if you've volunteered to bring a dessert to your next neighbourhood potluck; it's a sturdy traveller.

So I got all the ingredients for this labor intensive recipe and was ready to commence. Carrots were grated, butter was whipped, and after about four hours, the cakes were in the oven and the icing was ready for later assembly. 

The recipe stated: "It's best to bake cakes a day ahead of icing and leave at room temperature overnight." And it also suggests further, "Best to refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving." HA! That's cute. That's nearly three days and four hours to make a cake. 

Since I had been wanting this cake since last week, it was going to happen as efficiently as possible. 

OBSTACLES:

1. Our golden brown sugar was as hard as sidewalk chalk, and although I chipped away at it for a while with an ice pick, I couldn't salvage enough to complete the recipe. That's okay...problem solved by using white sugar for the remainder.

2. I had let the cakes cool in their pans for 15 minutes, just like the recipe said, but the cakes still stuck to the pan like teenage girls stick to Justin Bieber. Yes, I had an, "Oh crap" moment when the top half of the cake came out, while the bottom was still firmly in place. With, literally, the whole family in the kitchen, the cakes were saved, but not without serious disfigurement. (Note: To avoid this for your own cakes...line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper. I was lazy.)

3. The most challenging of them all; assembling the fragile layers of my wounded Hawaiian Carrot Cake. There comes a point when one realizes that what's most important is how the cake tastes anyway, though I built up the mighty four-layer tower of cake with skill and wit. "Sturdy traveller", my butt.

But hey, here's how it turned out:

I think its not too bad, considering! Not exactly like the picture, but neither is a Big Mac.

...And here's the other side...

...

*Clears throat*


Reminds me of that cake the fairies tried to make for Sleeping Beauty without using magic. Rustic.

Honestly though, it was DELICIOUS! And it is indeed more important for a cake to taste good than to look good. It was so moist, not too sweet and a bit spicy. Maaaaaybe next time I would refrigerate it as directed for prettier results.

Happy Baking!!