Carrot Cake with Candied Carrots

I've made this recipe as a full size cake before, but for a party this time I thought I'd try out my new square muffin pan. I had to bake three batches since I only have one pan and the cake mix makes a lot!! The recipe is on Martha Stewart website for the carrot cake, it's very tasty. This time I didn't put nuts, but if you toast the nuts like the recipe calls for and then chop them up finely it works out very well even for people who don't normally like nuts in their cake. Usually carrot cakes call for walnuts which I don't like...this one calls for pecans which compliment the cake very well. This is certainly not a DIET cake, with the recipe calling for a cup and a half of oil...even when you put the cake on muffin papers, the cake turns the paper oily..gross but tasty!

I also make her cream cheese icing, it calls for ginger and orange zest grated. I use the finest grate possible and make sure not to grate any of the white underneath the outside of the orange zest otherwise it takes on a bitter taste. I personally don't like items which call for orange zest or lemon usually, but if you use a fine rasp.. it always works out and makes a fine taste instead of harsh and strong and bitter. The recipe for the icing is off the same link above as the cake.

I cut off the tops of the mini cakes and made two layered mini cakes. I also made the candied carrot strips as the recipe calls for. It is quite the process but adds that special something to the final look. I will add the photo of that later. I took the idea of the chocolate blackout cake, and put the tops that were cut off into a food processor and made fine crumbs and pressed onto the sides of the cake.