Mashed Potatoes and Carrot Cake (not together, that's gross)

Alright, good morning! A couple posts ago, Emmy asked for a good mashed potato recipe, so here we go. This is my go-to and the one I like the best:

Mashed Potatoes of the Delicious Variety:

Lots and lots of chicken broth
Some potatoes, cut up into little, mashable pieces.
Half & half or milk, whatever
Butter
Pepper

Put you potatoes into a big old pot and completely cover them with broth. My husband is a mashed potato FIEND so I usually make a big ol’ pot and it takes a lot of broth. Bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cover, cook for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft enough for mashing. Drain your pot, but keep the broth! Mmmm.

Mash your taters! Go on, put some elbow into it. Throw in your butter (however much, y’all are smart people) and start pouring in the milk and the broth until the potatoes are as creamy as you like. Pepper it and I guess if you want, add some garlic, too! Hell, add some cheese and green onions. Add whatever you want! These are your potatoes. And they are awesome.

Grandma Vern’s Carrot Cake:
Cake:

1 3/4 c sugar
1 ¼ cup cooking oil
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3 c. shredded carrots
1 c. pecans

Frosting:

1 package cream cheese
1 box powdered sugar

Ok, so this cake. Before I get started…Dad really wanted this cake. Dad has been bugging me FOREVER to make this stupid cake (only without pecan shells, har har). Mom dug up the recipe and what I typed up there is EXACTLY what is on the worn piece of paper she handed me. That’s it. Pretty much the same dilemma I faced with Grandma Rhea’s zucchini bread – here’s all the stuff, but now what?

Well, I pulled out two of my cookbooks (Mrs. Mary Bobo’s and Southern Cakes) to see what I could find. I compared the recipes and aside from some variations in measurements, the only main difference was that the other recipes called for some of the sugar to be brown sugar and they added vanilla extract. I decided to stick with Grandma’s ingredients, and go with Mary Bobo’s instructions. Which I’m going to type here. From memory. So, make at your own risk? (P.S. I’m aware there are TON of variations on a carrot cake that include raisins and canned pineapple and applesauce, etc. I’m a purist.)

Mix your sugar and oil together…for awhile? Until well mixed? Until creamy? Whatever, just mix them up. Mix in the eggs one at a time.

In a separate bowl, sift together all of your dry ingredients (I actually ran out of cinnamon while making this, so I threw in some nutmeg to make up for the maybe ½ tsp of cinnamon I was missing – nutmeg makes EVERYTHING better, in my opinion. Except maybe like, tacos). Mix it in gradually to your egg/oil/sugar mixture. When it’s all done, mix in your carrots and pecans.

I baked it in two 8” pie pans at 350 for about 50 minutes. The recipe said 45 minutes but mine wasn’t quite done.

The icing is pretty simple…again, in the recipe books they both called for additions like vanilla extract and I think one said something else I can’t remember. Anyway, mix your sugar and your softened cream cheese and you are done! I ended up adding a lot more powdered sugar…the icing seemed slippery to me and I hate hate hate icing slipping off of a cake. Just keep adding until it’s at the consistency you want.

I will say that mom said it’s the best carrot cake she’s ever had and I believe (maybe I dreamed this part) that dad told me it was better than Grandma’s. That’s what I’m talking about, bitches. Better than grandma!