Carrot and Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting by Ina Garten

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Ina Garten a.k.a the Barefoot Contessa is one of my favorite Food Network hosts. I love her style of cooking and baking, the way she shops for fresh, local ingredients, and her elegant presentation. I’ve even tried to convince Dustin that we NEED a summer home in the Hamptons. He said we should probably have a year-round home first. Sigh. Him and his logic.

Whenever I’m searching for a recipe, if one of Ina’s pops up in the first results, I almost always choose to go with her recipe. So yesterday, when I got a hankering for a carrot cake with pineapple in it, I found her recipe rather quickly in my Google search. To be fair, it was the first result, haha.

Why with pineapple? Because I’ve had it before and it’s amazing!

My mom is a much better baker than I am, so I requested that she make it. She was happy to oblige. I like to bake, but I’m also lazy and impatient. I would much rather throw savory foods into a pot without hesitation than meticulously measure a pinch of this and a teaspoon of that. The baking bug bites me once, maybe twice a month at the most, but if possible, I’ll choose mom’s skilled hands over mine in the batter.

Carrot and Pineapple Cake adapted from Ina Garten’s recipe

Changes we made:

Instead of vegetable oil, we used Spectrum organic vegetable (palm) shortening
Omitted the walnuts (I don’t care for nuts in cake!)

Three words: Dense, doughy, and delicious!

That’s quite a large piece seen above; I had just 4 bites of it and that was enough to quench my lust for my this sweet, sweet treat. It makes an enormous cake, which I am not sure what to do with. Dustin doesn’t like raisins (or cake for that matter) and my mom likes cakes with nuts. My cousin, Tricia, LOVES carrot cake without nuts, just like I do, so maybe I’ll have to give her a LARGE piece if I see her in the near future!! I’ll have to send her a link to this post to entice her, haha. Devil Angel

It is CHILLY out today. Baking season has officially begun. Wooooo!

I have some kitchen organizing to do and dinner to make. It’s supposed to be 43 degrees tonight. Love it. And I love the hearty pasta and veggies I’m about to make. Yum, yum. Be back later-later. Rolling on the floor laughing

Tagged as: baking, cake, carrot and pineapple cake, carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, desserts, Ina Garten, recipes, sweets, treats

{ 4 comments }

1 Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga Twitter: avericooks September 15, 2011 at 6:57 PM: I love Ina Garten. Anyone who cooks with pounds of butter, is not shy about sugar, or about spending $150 on a tiny cheese platter for her guests b/c she just loves to entertain and breaks out the champagne and chocolate all the time is a huge hero for me. Love.Her.

Nice work on the cake…and the frosting
2 The Farmers Wife September 16, 2011 at 1:31 AM: Wow… I am drooling all over the computer over here… This cake looks so amazing! I will HAVE to try it asap!
3 amyt @ chicken nugget momma September 16, 2011 at 11:02 AM: I LOVE Ina…..she is so classy!!!!! This cake looks amazing!!
4 Nicole September 20, 2011 at 12:27 AM: Yummy! It’s looks so carrot. I also didn’t want nuts on cakes, I prefer raisins. Love the flavor when combined with the mixture. Thanks for sharing this sweet post. You bet I’ll try this tonight.