My daughter's first Giant Cupcake!

For Christmas, my daughter bought me the giant cupcake pan. I think this is a wonderful idea for a smash cake for a 1st birthday. It is adorable. I had been wanting to try it out, but I have been very busy. So, she tried it out for me.

She made, entirely from scratch, a wonderful carrot cake with caramel icing. Here is the recipe, if you would like to have it:

This recipe was from a local recipe book and Nancy Latier submitted the recipe. However my daughter added a few spices of her own to her liking:

Sugar and Spice carrot cake

4 eggs
1-1/2 Cups Light Brown Sugar
1-1/2 Cups grated carrots (3 large)
1-1/3 Cups vegetable oil
2-1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

She added the following to spice it up a bit:

1/4 teas. nutmeg, 1/4 teas. pumpkin pie spice, and 1/4 teas. ground clove

Beat eggs and sugar untill fluffy and slightly thick. Add carrots and oil; blend well. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt (add extra spices here if you want to add the extra). Stir into egg mixture. Pour into greased 13X9X2 inch baking pan (She used the giant cupcake pan with extra to spare). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (the cupcake pan took about an hour). Cool in pan. Frost. Makes 12 servings.

Caramel Icing

This recipe came from CDKitchen http://www.cdkitchen.com

One-Minute Caramel Icing

1 Cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1 teas. vanilla extract

In a large cast-iron skillet, brings sugars, milk and butter to a boil over high heat. Boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat. Pour into a heat-safe mixing bowl. Carefully beat with mixer at high speed until icing reaches spreading consistency, about 15 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Spread on cooled cake.

Frosts 2 8-inch round cake layers or one bundt cake.

My daughter said that the icing got too thick on her, but she just added a little warm milk until it reached the proper spreading consistency.

It was very tasty. I really liked it...with the extra spices it was sort of a combination carrot cake and spice cake all rolled into one. It had a firm consistency and was very moist.