Last week, we were in tank tops, complaining that its already getting so hot.
Today, it’s snowing!
Today is also our wedding anniversary!
Two years back, this day V and I entered into the “joys” of holy matrimony! We both took a leap of faith two years back, today.And then again tomorrow. (If you are confused, this post might help to clear your confusion)
I will be honest, things were not easy initially. An arranged marriage, completely new place, and thousands of miles away from my friends and family- people are right when they say the first year of marriage is always the toughest. It was tough for me and I am sure even for V. But we stuck through and today are celebrating our second year of togetherness! Hopefully there will be many more to come! 🙂
Last year for our first anniversary, we were not together. I was in India and V was in US. There were no gift exchanges, no hugs, no kisses, just a phone call.
This year thankfully we were with each other.
I baked a cake. We cut it.
Had lunch at home together and went out for dinner in the evening.
The snowfall, and the clouds on the drive made the whole day even more romantically special.
V gifted me an ice cream maker, something that I have wanted for a long time, and am so excited to use. Before you all gush and say how sweet, (or the feminists among you say how dare he give you a kitchen slave tool), I am getting him the new iPad. It might not seem a fair deal (of course, skewed towards V), but the iPad is his anniversary plus early birthday gift. Since I am not earning, and its through my savings that I am buying the gift, he just gets one big gift for both his special days.
And yes, he gets a cake too.
I had no problem deciding what cake I wanted to make. V loooooves carrot cake.
If I remember correctly, it was the first cake I baked for him after marriage. And he absolutely loved it.
V hardly used to eat cakes before marriage, something that has for surely changed in the last two years. There are many times he has come to me and told me that he is craving for something sweet, preferably a cake. His diplomatic and “too-sweet-to-bother-someone-else” self will never tell me to bake one, but generally when such feelings are shared, I bake one anyway.
Today, no such feeling were shared (maybe because he knew I would bake a cake either way and he was right). It is our anniversary and a cake had to be there to celebrate it.
Now, I have seen carrot cake recipes with crushed pineapple and coconut, and one with chopped apples too, all of which I am tempted to try. But I thought to stick to my plain carrot cake recipe, the one that V loves. He is not used to changes in his food, and I had my doubts that he might not welcome the variations. Since I was making the cake more for him than me, I am leaving my experiments for another day.
If you remember, one of my New Year resolutions was to make more layer cakes.
If you have been keeping track, there has only been one layer cake that I have made this year (the repeat of the lemon lavender cake).
The thing with layer cakes is you need a special occasion to actually make one. And you need a lot of people to help you finish it.At home, it’s just V and me. Most of the baked goods I make, I send to V’s office, but I am yet to figure out a good way to send layer cakes to V’s office. Plus, I think it would be silly to bake a layer cake for no occasion and sillier still to send it to V’s office and announce to the whole world how silly I am to make a layer cake just for fun! I mean that’s just too much of enthusiasm. Even for me.
Even for special occasions, like my birthday or anniversary, baking a layer cake just seems too much. I mean 3 cakes, slathered with frosting sound good, but then what do you do with all the left overs. My friends are all trying to lose/maintain weight and they don’t want cake near them. Nor do I. As a result, there have been no layer cakes.
But, I really wanted to make a layer cake.
After racking my brain a little, I figured why not make a smaller layer cake instead of a 9-inch layer cake. Since the only cake pans I have are 9-inch in diameter, I thought of baking one 9-inch cake, and cutting out circles from that, and using those smaller cake circles as layers. I am still making just one cake, and using that to make a layer cake. Absolute stroke of genius, I tell you! (I am sure people have done it before, but let me be happy that I am the only genius person to think of it!)
I baked the cake, and then realized I do not have any cutters for the dimension I liked. I found that the lid of a protein mix box was perfect to cut out three 4 inch layers from the 9-inch cake (yes, I can be quick on my feet, sometimes). Placing the lid on top, and using a serrated knife, I cut out a 4 inch circle. The same way, I cut out two more cake circles. And there I had three 4 inch cake layers.
I did manage to stack it up and it stayed till I cut it, but I was nervous that it would fall anytime, since the base was really small for the height of the cake. Next time, I’ll probably cut out two 4.5 inch circles, and cut each layer horizontally, to get four smaller (in height) 4.5 inch cakes.
On second thoughts, the sky high cake did look great once cut.
Sky High Carrot Cake for Two with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Rose Bakery
Note: I used 4 really large carrots, instead of 4-5 medium carrots. After grating, the carrots weighed about 340 gms. It did seem like a lot, but it really isn’t. The cake is moist and not too sweet. Since the cake isn’t overtly sweet, do keep that in mind when you make the frosting. If you would like it more sweet, use 75gms (or even more) of icing sugar in the frosting, else use 50 gms.
There will be some cake left after cutting out the circles, you can always use the leftover cake to make cake truffles, or just eat it as is!
Make sure the cake is completely cool before cutting it. I have found a 4 inch lid perfect to trace and cut out 3 circles from the 9 inch carrot cake, as shown in the picture below.
sweet 🙂
Wow.. look at the pics!! just kept me drooling!!!
Happy Anniv to u and Shivi…. and wish you many more to come ……Not sure if u remember… we met at your wedding and then last year at my brothers wedding…. Say Hi to shivi from me..and keep posting the yummy pics … u really do a great job!!! 🙂
This recipe look great! I would love it if you linked up this post to my springtime recipes blog hop for a chance to win a “Top Chef” cookbook: http://ow.ly/9Lmwj
now i am drooolingggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
Happy anniversary! If you keep making yummy little cakes like this one, he is one lucky little hubby. Have a super day. Take care, BAM
Lovely!!!!
Aww what a sweet way to celebrate your anniversary. And the cake look so yummy.
Happy Anniversary Shumi!!!
I am also eating carrot cupcake Mama made, with maple syrup topping!!
Your cake is looking yummy and tall(slim!)
This looks soooo good! I’m dying to make a carrot cake like this one!
http://betweenkitchens.blogspot.com
happy anniversary! 🙂
I am just amazed by the cake. And amazed by the quote and I wouldn’t change a thing about the way you layered the cake! petite yet tall! 🙂 Wish you a happy anniversary!
I really enjoyed reading your post! Happy belated anniversary. And the cake looks delish: )
http://www.auntietreats.com/
Happy Anniversary!! Your cake looks delicious, and your idea to cut layers from a 9″ pan is BRILLIANT! I have also struggled with the conundrum of wanting to make layer cake, but not having so much of it around to tempt me into eating too much.
When I first saw your post, before seeing the picture of your cute, round cake, I thought you were going to use a 9″ square pan and cut it to create four square layers, which I also think would be super cute. Guess I’ll have to try it both ways 🙂
This cake is so lovely! I don’t think I would have thought to cut the smaller circles from one larger round, but it turned out super cute. I love layer cakes, too, but baking them can definitely be a pain because there is almost always so much left over. I try to wait for large gatherings or parties so I won’t have to eat half myself or throw it away.
So adorable! Happy anniversary!
Well done, it looks amazing! And the cooks perk is all the odd bits of unused cake 😉
The photos look amazing 🙂
I tried this today – though is the recipe card quoting the amounts you used? It turned out to be enough batter for a 9″ sandwich, and I got two fat layered sky-highs AND 12 truffles from it. Will use half the quantity next time (because I ate all the leftovers – oops waist line!) but it tasted divine. Thank you for the recipe and great website!
Happy blogging 🙂
I like it whenever people get together and share opinions.
Great blog, continue the good work!
Sammy recently posted..Sammy
I really enjoyed reading the post. This cake is so lovely! I don’t think I would have believed to cut small circles from one bigger round, but it converted out extremely charming.
Trina Hahnemann recently posted..Kitchen First Aid: Part 2
Thank you so much Trina 🙂