Mini Layered Carrot Cake

A word about carrot cake: Please don't make the joke that you like carrot cake because it's healthy. We all know that people enjoy it because the cake part is a complimentary vehicle for delicious, delicious cream cheese icing and not because it meets some recommended daily allowance for fiber. I mean, it's a freaking cake, you know?

But that's me digressing before I even get started. For the first of the 37 confections, I used this recipe for carrot cake, roughly cut in third.

Other variations: I didn't use maple syrup in the icing because, no. (I did add a bit of vanilla extract though. About 1 tsp for the whole batch of icing. (I'll be using it on another cake later in this project so I made the full icing recipe.)) I also didn't bother with the walnuts 'cause I didn't have any.

Once the batter is, you know, batter-y, fill your prepared tin/cake pan/etc of choice approximately 1/3 full.

Please note that the following is an example of how to NOT fill up a tin/cake pan/etc as it will result in a batter explosion (not pictured) during baking.



An aside: Why yes! Those are tuna cans. How astute of you to notice! Now shut up with the complaints before you start. I washed them before I baked in them.

Anyway, this is the result if you overfill your cans. (Bake time was approx 40 minutes.)



These could double as those sad little fried falafel type patties that your veg roomie in your sophomore year in college used to make.

Not to worry, however, as all things are salvageable with icing. See? The layers even start to look halfway normal when stacked (albeit a bit shiny from caramelization and flash).



What did I tell you about the icing, huh?

One small slice equaled around three bites and required one juice glass full of milk to wash it down.

And, no, the milk didn't make this any "healthier" than the shredded carrots did. What exactly is it about the concept of cake that you don't get?!