Mamaw's Carrot Cake

Jim's Mamaw has the best carrot cake recipe. She makes it for Christmas each year. I wasn't sure I could make it as good as her...and I was right it isn't as good as hers....but it's pretty darn close :o)

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Carrot Cake
1 1/2 c. Crisco Oil (she uses oil, so I use oil... I am not sure what it would be like with the solid crisco)
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups grated carrots (I use the food processor for this. It makes the texture more fine, which is how I prefer it!)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix oil and sugar with hand mixer until blended. Add the eggs and mix some more. Sift dry ingredients together and add them to the oil/sugar/egg mixture. Fold in carrots. Grease pan, pour in batter and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Icing (also known as the best part!)
2 cups powdered sugar
8oz. cream cheese (softened)
1 stick of butter (softened)
1 tbsp. lemon juice (I leave this out because I usually don't have lemons laying around)
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix cream cheese and butter until creamy and combined. Add powered sugar in small batches until incorporated. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and whip until fluffy!

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Mamaw bakes the cake in a 9x13, flips it out of the pan (think pineapple upside down cake) and then icings it. The few times I have made this, my cake always sticks in some places and my cake is no longer a perfect little rectangle. I am not sure what her trick is, since I grease my pan thoroughly...maybe you all will have better luck! (If you figure out a trick, please let me know!)

We had this for father's day, and it was a huge hit!