a very happy birthday + the easiest from-scratch birthday cake ever

The day after the election is a good day to talk about something light and fluffy, don't you think? Like birthdays. And cake. My favorite cake is carrot cake. What's yours?

There's something about carrot cake. Well, I can't explain it but those who love it know what I'm trying to say. 

Have you ever done that thing where you project your own likes onto your child? Like, "She really likes soft pillows and her bath extra warm" when it's really what you like? Well, I do that with Greta and food. Once, when she wouldn't eat sweet potatoes, one of my favorite (and one of the healthiest) foods, I said, aghast, "but it's your favorite!" Now, when I serve her sweet potatoes, she says, "my favorite!" and gobbles them right up. So on her second birthday, I knew exactly what cake I'd be making her—the same carrot cake mom made me each and every year.

On the way to this decision, I actually tried on other people's carrot cakes, just for fun. I made some healthier, some double deckers and some plain old-fashioneds.  But here's the thing—on a birthday, only the very best will do. That's mom's cake. 

During this journey, here's what I figured out—this is the easiest from-scratch cake, ever. And I mean ever. Like, make on your lunch break (if you work from home) or while the laundry is on the spin-cycles easy. Which is probably why, besides the fact that I love it so much, my mom always made it for me—I'm the third of four kids and my guess is she didn't have a lot of spare time for making cakes.

What she did do is decorate my cakes to the max, aqua-blue pool for a pool party, a yellow-studded pineapple for a luau party, but whenever she’d slice it open, there was my favorite orange cake. I don't have the patience for piping bags lately, so I opted instead to make Greta’s cake these sweet vintage Jell-O molds my sister bought me during my last visit. I didn't do a test run, just buttered and floured the day of the party and crossed my fingers while I put out the rest of the spread.

It was a risk, I admit, baking them blind on the day of the party. I did pour the remaining batter into a quarter sheet pan for backup, but the mini bundts worked like a charm, too. Just one more reason I love and adore this cake—in any shape or size, it rarely disappoints.

Here's the very, very special thing about carrot cake that really must be said—if you want to, you can go ahead and convince yourself it is good for you, and that it’s a perfectly okay cake for kids. It's carrots, after all. While we know it's not exactly health food, I have made a few modifications to my version (whole wheat white flour, less oil, less sugar) that I guarantee you, even if you happened to have come to one of my birthday parties between age 2 and 12 and got hooked like me, you'd never know the difference.

But enough about cake, let's talk about my itty bitty little lady, who I made this cake for. I adore her. Her spirit is huge and happy. Her eyes shine light and joy on the world. She's a little lover, cradling anything from a baby doll to a bath toy in the nook of her arm and showering everyone she knows with hugs and kisses. It doesn't take carrot cake to sweeten her disposition, but like her mamma, she can down a piece like nobody's business. She knows how to have a good time, and she won't quit until you absolutely make her. We are so, so very grateful for two healthy, delicious years with her and for two loving, doting grandparents who drove 19 hours to celebrate with us. Thanks for the recipe Mom, I owe you one! 

While were telling stories, won’t you tell me your best birthday cake ever story, please? And in the meantime, happy birthday sweet Greta pie. Here's a carrot cake to grow on. 

~

The Easiest Carrot Cake Ever + Creamy Cheese Frosting

Serves 12 adults or 24 kids

Cake

4 large eggs

1 ¾ cups raw organic sugar

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

10 oz organic carrot baby food (or 1 1/4 cups carrot puree) 

2 cups white whole-wheat flour 

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Frosting

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

12 oz Neufchâtel or cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons agave nectar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9 by-13-inch pan, quarter sheet pan or 24 muffins or molds. Line the pan with a wide piece of parchment paper cut so that it tucks neatly along 2 opposite sides and hangs over edges by about 1 inch on the other opposite sides to create flaps. Butter and flour the paper or the molds

To make the cake: Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 4 minutes. Add the oil and carrot puree. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon and stir into the cake batter until evenly combined. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until the cake spring back lightly when touched, about 40 minutes for a sheet cake, or 20 to 22 minutes for small cakes or cupcakes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.      

Meanwhile, to make the frosting: Make sure the butter and cream cheese are soft but still cool. Beat them together with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, with no remaining lumps. Sift in the confectioners’ sugar and add agave and vanilla extract. Beat until light and fluffy. 

Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled bars, or top each mini cake with a tuft of frosting. Serve at room temperature.   

P.S. Some 2nd birthday party tips: 

1.  Musical Chairs (or pillows) with sticker prizes is a huge hit with the two-to-three set.

2. If you decide you're going to do face painting at your child's birthday party, by Murphy’s Law, your child will be the only one who doesn't want their face painted. Let them paint your face instead.

Photos and Recipes © Sarah Copeland 2012

Please credit source on Pinterest. All other uses require permission via email.

{eat cake} Rhubarb Upside Down Cake + Our Little Secret

{photo by Sara Remington}

This is the story of the best cake I've ever made, the cake that got me on The Martha Stewart Show. It is my mother's, and originally my grandma Pollock's famous Rhubarb Upside Down Cake. The making of this cake is as clear as any memory I have of childhood. Mom would send one of us into the backyard to snap off fat stalks of rhubarb that grew up over our heads. I remember the ruby color, the first crack of the fibers as she sliced them into plump chunks, rhythmically rocking her well-used Chicago Cutlery against the cutting board. The smell of the house as the cake cooks is like a wave of browning sugar that washed over every sense, and it can still take me back to the sounds of my dad, smacking his lips with a gleeful “oh honey, honey, hon-ey” aimed at my mother as he drizzled fresh cream over his steamy portion. To me, this cake is all innocence and childhood. It is bliss.

Years later, when I was learning French pastry at the New York City restaurant Café Boulud, I made mom's cake for the staff, and my pastry chef Remy Funfrock, whom I both feared and adored. I brought him his portion rather sheepishly -- he was a renowned three-star French pastry chef and this a humble farm dessert. He spouted rave reviews in his thick French accent, claiming he wanted to put it on his menu, and making me, the awkward and normally silent new pastry cook, feel like a sudden star. His praise was a strong, early lesson to always be proud of where we come from.

Since then I've made this cake proudly for friends and colleagues far and wide, including for my dear friend Nikki while we were working side by side in the Food Network Kitchens years ago. Knowing I wanted to save the recipe to include in my own cookbook one day, I shared the recipe with her but with the promise never to reveal its contents, especially, the secret ingredient -- marshmallows. 

Packaged miniature marshmallows go against all the principles of fresh, local, seasonal food. But you’ll have to forgive yourself just this once. They are the magic ingredient in this irresistible cake, that brûlée into an alluring crust along the top of the cake, balancing the tart, tender rhubarb that's making its fleeting appearance in the market as we speak. 

Needless to say, Nikki kept her promise and our secret until years later when, while running the kitchen at The Martha Stewart Show, she made this cake for Martha Stewart herself. And that's how my book won Martha's heart. 

Sunday night I'll be teaching a group of newlyweds how to make this cake, along with five of my other favorite late-spring, early-summer dishes from my book. I sincerely wish you could all be there with me (I love a packed house!). Ugh. Why do you all live so far away? So we can be together in spirit, here's my recipe so you can make Rhubarb Upside Down Cake and have a little "honey, honey hon-ey" in your kitchen too. 

~

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

From The Newlywed Cookbook

Serves 6

5 tbsp/70 g unsalted butter {plus more for the pan}, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups/140 g cake/soft-wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 cups/350 g sugar

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 cup/120 ml whole milk

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

4 large stalks rhubarb, cut in 1/2-in/12 mm pieces {about 4 cups/2 kg}

Handful of miniature marshmallows

High-quality vanilla ice cream, for serving

Heavy/double cream {optional}, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180°C/gas 4. Butter a 9-in/23-cm-square baking pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, 3/4 cup/150 g of the sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix in the 5 tbsp/70g soft butter with a fork or your fingers. Whisk together the milk, eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, using a fork to bring all together into a loose batter.

Toss together the rhubarb, the remaining 1 cup/200 g sugar, and marshmallows in a medium bowl; spoon in an even layer in the prepared baking pan. Spoon the batter over the top in an even layer. The batter will drip down between the rhubarb allowing some of the rhubarb to show {don’t worry if some of the marshmallows and rhubarb show, they will melt into a caramelized crust as the cake cooks}.

Bake in the center of the oven until the rhubarb is bubbly, the top is puffed and caramelized {slightly golden-crisp in spots}, and the cake springs back lightly when touched, about 40 minutes.

If you can resist the intoxicating smell, let the cake cool a few minutes on a rack. Then spoon out into small bowls, flipping the cake so the rhubarb side faces up, and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you’re feeling really decadent or have a bit of Southern in you, drizzle fresh cool cream over the top.