And Now - A Mound of Carrots

Let's say just the day before, you've worked your way through three pounds of zucchini by pureeing them into a soup. And now imagine you have an equivalent amount of carrots. The last thing in the world you want is another baby food-style mushy soup (even if it will be delicious - it's a lot of pureed vegetables for a grownup to handle).

So you turn to the second, and arguably more fun, thing to do with your excess of vegetables.

Cake!

A friend of mine told me to buy Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook because I had a food processor and I still didn't know what to do with it. She assured me that the vegetarian cookbook full of delicious recipes was a great way to put that processor to good use - there's always some vegetable to shred in the recipes. I shredded the pounds of carrots in preparation for sinning them up with sugar, butter, flour:

Mollie Katzen's Carrot Cake

1 1/2 cups butter

1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar

4 eggs

3 tsp vanilla extract

1tsp grated lemon zest

4 cups flour

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp allspice (I didn't have this and didn't miss it)

2 tsp cinnamon

2 1/2 cups packed finely shredded carrot combined with 1/4 cup lemon juice

You can add 3/4 cup of raisins and / or nuts or 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (if only I'd had some to hand!)

Preheat over to 350. I made half of the above quantity which goes into one standard loaf pan. If you make all of the above, it comes out to two loaves or one big oblong pan (e.g. your brownie pan).

Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy, then add vanilla and lemon rind.

Combine dry ingredient, then add to butter mixture, alternating with the carrot, beginning and ending with the dry goods. Don't overmix! (Does anyone know why? I think it's because it kills the butter bubbles you've so carefully made when beating butter and sugar together, and they go on to form the pleasing crumbly cake crumb. Any other reasons you know of?)

Bake for 40 or 50 minutes in the loaf pan, or 35 minutes in the oblong pan.

Although I made this cake in the summer due to the surfeit of vegetables in the house, the cinnamon, raisins, and nuts made this a gorgeously fall-flavored cake, perfect with a cup of tea and some cold weather swirling outside.