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For today’s post (my fourth in a row! Look at me!), I’m interrupting my recent diatribes about writing to actually write about something important: carrot cake!

Carrot cake is a crowd favorite, but it’s historically a pain in my ass because I don’t like to grate carrots. I inevitably get too close to the grater and cut my finger. It’s a thing. So, when I came across Grossy Pelosi’s recipe for Carrot Cake that uses baby food for the carrots I was intrigued if a little grossed out. My lazy baker tendencies won and I tried the recipe and, wowza, it’s a keeper. I’ll never make another. You dump everything in one bowl and keep your life moving forward and that just makes me so happy. Plus, when I say the crowd goes wild for these things? Holy crap. Whoever enjoys these will be losing their minds over how delicious they are. It’s the best feeling in the entire world as a baker to watch and cackle over people who love your food. It gives people-pleasers like me such satisfaction!

I’m reposting the recipe below because I’ve made a few substitutions that make it perfect for me, but definitely check out the full recipe on Dan’s website for step-by-step photos and additional subs!

Ingredients:

For Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups AP flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsweetened or sweetened coconut (I prefer unsweet but sometimes it’s hard to find. Use what you can get!)
• One 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, strained and given a whirl in food processor. I prefer my carrot cake without fruit clumps in it. If you like fruit clumps, you don’t need to strain!
• Two 4 ounce jars of carrot baby food puree
• 2 cups walnuts (optional). I like my cake nutty! Use less if you want a lighter touch or none at all if you are a nut hater or have allergies.

For Frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cake pan or line muffin tin. I prefer muffins for quick breads because I like crunchy edges.
2. Dump all cake ingredients in a bow and mix. So easy.
3. Pour into pan or muffin tin and cook until golden brown or toothpick comes out clean, about twenty minutes for muffins and about an hour for cakes depending on your oven.
4. Once cake is fully cooled, frost.
5. For frosting, mix ingredients together in stand mixer or using your arm power until light and fluffy.

Yield: about 24 muffins

These cupcakes taste best after some time in the fridge. They are SOOOO good. Thank you Dan and Dan’s mom for blessing us with this recipe. Thus far, I have given cupcakes to my niece, given some to my boss for her birthday and brought them to a dinner party. The yield is high and they are so incredibly easy. Enjoy!

Here we are! Day 3 posting and it already feels like things are spinning out of control for me, not to be dramatic or anything.

Trying to balance my life and my writing is the central struggle in the internal drama of my life. It’s where my plot rests. My emotions spin around this axis of wanting to write more than anything, but not actually writing a whole lot. And then I tumble on the guilt and shame around the fact that I don’t write and then I undertake a crazy challenge like this one to write 30 days straight and I feel so hopeful and optimistic and then the reality of the fact that my life isn’t built to house the rest, creative reflection and pockets of time I think I need to do good work. So I fail at my challenge and I lose faith and belief in myself and the promises I make to pursue my dreams.

And so the cycle continues on and on…

Until now.

Because now that I see the cycle for what it is, I can make a conscious decision to step off of this hamster wheel and onto a different track. My life isn’t designed for writing at this time, but I am the one in control and I can make the tradeoffs I need to make in order to accommodate this dream and goal of mine. I’m committed to shedding this victim mentality where life happens to me, not because of me. I will say it again: I’m in control. I make the calls.

So, the question is going to become: how do I make the time for this challenge, now and evermore? What needs to change in the makeup of my days to accommodate this dream? Because, I’ve decided that it’s no longer possible for me to simply forgo writing so that I can rise to all of the other demands on my time. I’ve done that for too many years and I’m sick of waiting for the time to make my dreams happen.

I don’t have the answer today, but I am sure I will figure it out. I can figure anything out.

I didn’t invent this challenge to spend 30 days agonizing over writing and I definitely didn’t come here today to wax poetic about my victim mentality.

I actually came here to tell you about the floral mandala I made yesterday morning….

My friend and teacher Nicola had posted on Instagram about making a mandala just because. Sometimes we get caught up in the ritual of things and think we need to wait until a special occasion to make something beautiful, but why not just make something beautiful simply because you can? Why not take your flowers that are heading for the compost bin and rebuild them into an alter where you simply give thanks for the chance to be alive?

I love the sentiment and I loved the chance to do just that yesterday morning.

This simple act set the tone for the most wonderful day. I didn’t do anything too crazy, but it was just perfect. I worked out, wrote, made things, did house projects and took myself on a date for the most delicious eggplant parmesan and a trip to Target to prep for our vacation coming up this weekend.

I hope you can find the time today to take a moment to make something beautiful just to celebrate the fact that you’re alive. It made such a huge difference for me yesterday.

Love you all!