Carrot Cake

I like carrot cake. There, I’ve said it. I don’t think it’s my favourite cake by a long shot, and I certainly wouldn’t pick it over most other cake variants… chocolate, vanilla, strawberry shortcake, coffee, toffee, caramel, apple… but I do really like carrot cake.

Which is a bit weird, because at its core, carrot cake is ‘emergency cake,’ or wartime cake, or cake made when absolutely everything else has gone to the soldiers and you’re left with hungry children and root vegetables.

Sure, cream cheese icing helps. And yes, modern versions definitely include more sugar… and I like raisins, don’t mind nuts, and have had some very satisfying carrot cakes with pineapple in it (don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it!). But it got me thinking, via a remarkably indirect way, about the shortcuts I make in order to write my books. The substitutions I make because all the sugar and most of the flour has gone away somewhere else, to deal with other stresses in my life. And even thought that’s true, that I’m working with the totality of what I have remaining… it can still come out with a pretty good cake.

Maybe the real treasure was the carrot cakes we made along the way? I dunno, just a weird thought I had today while enjoying a small slice of carrot cake.

Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!