The Ultimate Carrot Cake

Hey everyone!

This week's LUNCH THERAPY patient is none other than Marquita Robinson, a writer for ABC's Blackish, who's also written for GLOW, You're The Worst, and The New Girl.

Marquita grew up on an Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan, then moved with her family to the Azores, and finally landed in Oklahoma City. We talk about everything from Tom Hanks eating all the caviar in You've Got Mail to what it's like growing up with one idea of America and then arriving to a completely different experience. We cover drinks at Sonic, taco rice, switching Kosher salts, and Teriyaki sauce.

CLICK HERE to listen and, once again, if you can find it in your heart to leave a review on iTunes, I will be forever grateful. Your reviews have meant to much to me and they make a big difference to the show's success. It's super easy to do. Just click these words and you're halfway there!

Now for CARROT CAKE.

I made the carrot cake you see above because three of my friends, all Virgos, had birthdays around the same time: Ryan, Harry, and Henry. They all came over for dinner on Friday night and I made that Mac and Cheese I already told you about (actually I made two of them) and then served the carrot cake for dessert.

The recipe's from The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook which, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the best home baking books on the market. Everything always results in the cozy, family bakery version that you crave when you're baking at home. Their carrot cake recipe doesn't reinvent the wheel; but it does have dried currants and pecans in the batter (I toasted the pecans first for extra flavor).

The cake made the whole apartment smell good, with cinnamon and nutmeg, and also a bit like fall, even though it's still 95 degrees in L.A.

I watched a YouTube tutorial on applying the cream cheese frosting and it was pretty effective; you just pile the frosting on top, then smooth it out. I had a harder time applying the chopped pecans (which I also toasted): I ended up flinging them at the cake.

Here are the birthday boys with their birthday carrot cake.

And here are the two slices Craig and I had for breakfast the next morning.

So if you're thinking about making a carrot cake, I say do it. Everyone loves it and it's not that hard.

Ok, that's all for this week!

Until next time....

Your friend,
Adam (a.k.a. the "Please Leave Me Nice Reviews on iTunes" guy)