I am sitting here writing this with little George in my baby carrier trying to fall asleep. He turns 4 months old next week! I don’t get around to baking or blogging as much as I would like to. And I have to admit, since having Dylan almost 4 years ago, I find myself saying that a lot!! This blog is my passion project and creative outlet, and it’s always been there. But, it doesn’t get as much love as I would like it to most months. Life with little people around is hectic! But SO fun.

Dylan wanted to bake carrot cake this past weekend and it was great timing because: (1) I wanted to update my old Magnolia Bakery post from 2013, and (2) my blog is turning 11 years old in a few weeks so I wanted to post a cake recipe to celebrate!!

ELEVEN YEARS of blogging. WOW. I was a senior in college when my brother-in-law helped me think of my blog “cookingannabaking” - that was the website name in the beginning years. I moved over to this URL in 2015 and have kept evolving!! It went from baking to now with a little bit of motherhood weaved in.

This photo was taken at my favorite cookie shop in Chelsea Market in NYC in 2010 and I shared it in my very first blog post! Bakeries were my everything and I used to walk around NYC when I visited my sister and visit aaaaaall the bakeries. My favorite was Magnolia Bakery. I was around 15 years old on a family trip when I first went to the original location in the West Village.  Not only is it located on Bleecker Street, the best street name there is, but I remember peeking into the side window as man in a white apron was spreading white icing over a tall, tiered white cake. 

This Magnolia Bakery Carrot Cake I’m sharing today is also a fitting recipe to share as my blog celebrates 11 years. Chad and I fell in love in NYC and we always visited the Magnolia Bakery by Rockefeller Center when I would visit him. He bought me a cookbook with Magnolia’s recipes. I think back to that time, when we were not sure what the future held for us, if he would come back to the Midwest with me or I would go out to New York with him. It was an exciting time of writing snail mail and forgetting everything and all worries except for what was happening in that moment. I look at us now with three little children and a house in St. Louis and really cannot believe how far we have come. And this blog has been here through it all. I go back through my recipe posts and remember the exact time in my life that I shared that recipe in a post.

I started this blog in 2010 while I was a senior in college as a way to document my baking adventures. Recipes and baking I had learned growing up in the kitchen with my mom. Years of watching the Food Network in high school and college. Reading books about food. Cooking and baking was a major passion of mine.

And although I am not cooking and baking as much today (because, well, my little people around all the time)… it still holds a HUGE place in my heart.

You may all have this hidden part in you, whatever the hobby. One that day after day, you look back and realize it is actually a major part of your life. It becomes was makes you tick. What makes you unique.

This blog has been with me from college to moving to Southern Illinois to attend law school. Then with me when I moved to St. Louis. It was here when I planned my wedding and my mom and I baked my wedding cake and cookies! And now with children, where I struggle to even get a meal on the table for dinner. BUT, Dylan and I sure do make baking a priority as we make cookies and cupcakes together… and also a HUGE mess. But it’s so much fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way. She helped me make this cake!

I have also watched you all make and enjoy my recipes, lots of them my own family recipes that have been a part of my entire life. And THAT in and of itself is a reason I continue blogging. It’s the best part!!

We show love through food and through the kitchen. Taking the time, using your hands and creating something you’ve made. Baking is a gift.

I can’t wait to continue to share that gift with you all as I show up in this space and share my life and recipes.

Thank you for being here!!

xo,

Anna

Magnolia Bakery's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup vegetable oil (canola is preferred)

• 1 ¾ cup sugar

• 3 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 cups lightly packed shredded carrots

• One 8oz. can crushed pineapple in it’s own juice (buy the kind with juice)

• ¾ cup sweetened shredded coconut

• 1 cups coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Directions for the cake:

1. Toast Pecans: Place the chopped pecans on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until lightly brown and fragrant. Set aside to cool. (we have a nut allergy so I did not use pecans)

2. Preheat Oven 325 degrees.

3. Grease and lightly flour two 9×2 inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with wax paper or parchment paper.

4. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

5. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the oil and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until light & thick (about 2 minutes). Add the vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating until well incorporated.

6. Stir in the carrots, pineapple (with its juice), 1 cup of pecans and coconut.

7. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pan for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

8. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

9. NOTE: The cake in the photograph is a one layer thick cake because I did not use the pineapple and pecans, so the batter just filled one 9 inch round pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 8oz. packages of cream cheese or light cream cheese (softened)

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened and cut into little pieces)

• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

• 5 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar

Frosting Directions:

1. In a large bowl, on the medium speed beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth (about 3 minutes). Add the vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time until smooth and creamy.

2. Cover and refrigerate the frosting for 2-3 hours to thicken before using. Do not keep it in the fridge any longer or it will be too hard to frost. (It will also be okay if you don’t do the chill step!)