Carrot Cake & Lemon Bars

On Easter I decided to make a carrot cake and lemon bars (that's easter-y, right?) I apologize that there aren't any pictures with this post. I thought about not posting at all because of that but I thought, a picture-less post is better than no post at all.

So the carrot cake. amazingness. I'm making this again asap.

The recipe is found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Cake-III/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans
•  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

Seriously delicious. I put the frosting in the microwave for a few seconds so that it spread easily on the cake. Worked very well. Now I'm just wishing there was more of it.


As for the Lemon bars, I found this recipe on epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Bars-101162

I haven't ever made lemon bars before but I found them really easy and pretty delicious.