Happy thoughts today.  Nothing but happy thoughts.

Wishes for bubbles and starbursts and a weekend of kite-flying.

Hopes for lollipops and buttons and glass pickles.

Thinking all sorts of things for you, including chocolate bunnies and carrot cake.

So long as you recognize it’s only just a slice of carrot cake.  A single slice.

Okay, a half slice.  No.  A bite.

Oh, heck.  Let’s not have carrot cake be part of this weekend’s happy things. 

Wishing you a weekend of forks laden with frosting and sticky fingers and carrot cake crumbs.

You wouldn’t have liked it anyway.

The Ultimate Carrot Cake

If you want a rich, decadant carrot cake filled with all sorts of nuggets of love, this recipe is yours. The batter is surprisingly healthy, calling only for a couple cups of flour to pull together the carrots, rainbows, coconut, raisins, puppies, walnuts, pineapple, and unicorns. It's perfect. Simply, splendidly perfect. Topped with a rich cream cheese frosting and you're pretty much walking on sunshine forevs.

Ingredients:

FOR THE CAKE:
16 ounces of carrots
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple
1 (7 ounce) bag coconut
1 (6 ounce) bag chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups golden raisins
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups flour

FOR THE FROSTING:
3 (8 ounce) blocks of Neufchatel cream cheese
5 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons milk

Directions:

FOR THE CAKE:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Clean the carrots well, then grate half of them with the large side of your grater and half with the fine side of your grater. In an electric mixer, beat together the coconut oil, eggs, pineapple and sugar. Beat in the remaining ingredients just until well mixed. Pour an even amount of batter into three 8-inch round cake pans that have been well-greased and floured. Bake for 35-40 minutes, just until the center of the cakes set and bounce back to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

FOR THE FROSTING:
In an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar, adding just enough milk to make the frosting creamy, but it should be quite thick. Spread on cooled cake. Eat. enjoy. wowza.