Carrots gone bad

Bad for you, that is. While I found this carrot cake recipe in the April edition of Cooking Light, I think the only difference between their version and a traditional recipe is the serving size. The magazine claims to have cut "1,000 calories per slice" of carrot cake; yet when their recipe still includes standards like butter, eggs and sugar the only way they can do that is by making a much smaller piece.

The recipe starts out on the healthy track with 2 cups of grated carrots,

but it's pretty much all down hill from there when the carrots get mixed into the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, I beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and added eggs one at a time.

Mmmmm beaters. I once met a girl whose mother never let her lick the beaters because of the raw egg. Poor deprived child. I've been lickin' beaters my whole life, and so far so good!!

Dry meets wet,

and gets poured into the pan and put into the oven.

Later, it's time to put together the frosting. Start with nice "light" ingredients like cream cheese and butter.

And a few cups of powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla.

Mix well, and you get heaven in a bowl. Rather ironic for a "light" recipe, I ended up with about 3/4 cup of extra frosting, and that is even after I took 1/2 of the sheet and make a small round layer cake with it.

Last but not least, quality control. This piece is probably a tad larger than the recommended serving, which was 1/20 of the 11" x 13" pan, but the tiny spoon makes it look a lot bigger, doesn't it? Almost all ice cream and many other desserts in Japan are served with tiny little spoons, which is great idea in my opinion. Tiny bites means dessert lasts longer, and less material is used to manufacture tiny plastic spoons than regular sized ones!

Overall, a tasty recipe, but certainly not one I would consider "light." Nor is that a quality I even consider in choosing my desserts. Snacks and meals, sure, but dessert is dessert--it wouldn't be nearly as good if it wasn't a little bad for you!