Last Sunday was Easter, and Cam, Fitz, and I spent a lowkey day hanging out together in Minnesota. As I’ve shared in recent posts, the weather has been particularly nasty over these last couple weeks, and even though the calendar says “Spring,” the weather insists we are experiencing Winter 2.0. Needless to say, it didn’t feel a whole lot like your typical springtime celebration, and yet nevertheless we tried to make things feel fun and festive in small, special ways.
In that spirit, the highlight of our day was spending some quality time in the kitchen whipping up a beloved fan favorite of ours, carrot cake. Cam and I both enjoy carrot cake for its rich, spicy flavor and its decadent cream cheese frosting. Let’s be real: Cream cheese frosting is the best type of frosting, and it’s quite possibly a standout of its own accord. And, when combined with a warm, nutty cake packed with fresh carrots and teeming with the perfect amount of sponge and moistness? Well, there’s almost nothing better.
Now, keep in mind the recipe we followed wasn’t just any old carrot cake recipe: It was Roberta’s carrot cake recipe. Roberta was a dear friend of my late Grandpa Marley, and she knows a thing or two about making incredibly delicious desserts. Roberta and Marley were good pals, and I knew her best as grandpa’s friend from morning coffee who also shared delicious fresh corn whenever we visited Mitchell, South Dakota in the heat of summer. Indeed, every interaction with Roberta was warm and filled with an unassuming humble generosity that is so rare these days, and that woman is forever cemented in my brain as the picture of true midwestern goodness.
In addition to the endless ears of delicious corn, during one of our visits with grandpa, Roberta also shared her renowned homemade carrot cake. Given her dazzling track record the bar was already set extremely high, and yet the moment I scooped up my fork and took one deliberate, decadent bite I knew I had stumbled upon a national treasure. From the moist cake to the lightly formed outer crust to the slight lemon tang of the cream cheese frosting, everything about this cake was positively scrumptious, and I knew it needed to become a seasonal staple in my life.
Shortly after that trip my mom secured the coveted cake recipe, and we’ve sought to recreate that magical moment several times since. While nothing will ever quite compare to those first couple bites, I can say without a doubt that this cake will dang near knock your socks off.
So, this Easter Cam and I made carrot cake. It was a simple, relatively uncomplicated addition to our low-key celebration, but it also felt like a particularly special one, too. Intentionally walking through each step of the recipe mixing the ingredients, peeling (read: food processing) the carrots, and letting the warm fragrant aroma waft through the apartment as everything baked together in the oven brought a clear sense of calm, joy, and comfort to an otherwise cold, gray, and damp “spring” afternoon. For while we can’t always control the weather, the environment, or our circumstances, we can control how we show up and what we choose to pour our time, attention, and energy into. Life is too short to get bogged down and sweat the small stuff; I’d rather spend time slowing down, eating good food, and whipping up great memories with the ones I love.
So go ahead: Give Roberta’s carrot cake recipe a try. It doesn’t have to be Easter for you to experience the magic for yourself. Don’t worry: Just hunker down, peel happy, enjoy the ride, and savor the moment.
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