Triple-Spice Carrot Cake

Prep time, about 30-45 minutes (which varies, depending on your culinary fitness)

Carrot Cake

"Wet" Ingredients:
3 C grated raw carrots (6-8 carrots grated in food processor, disk only, shred side up)
4 unbeaten eggs
2 C sugar
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C salad oil*
*1/2 C applesauce (optional, allows you to reduce oil to just 1 C, or keep oil amount as-is for extra yum)

"Dry" Ingredients:
2 t soda
1 t salt
2 C all-purpose flour
2 t cinnamon (healthy cinnamon helps liver deal with insulin )
1/2 t ginger (ginger helps reduce digestive inflammation)
1/4 t cloves
1 C chopped pecans or walnuts (nuts are just plain good for you!)

• Using an electric mixer bowl, combine wet ingredients: carrots, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil (applesauce, opt'l) and beat until ingredients are smooth.
• In a medium-sized bowl, stir together dry ingredients.
• Add dry ingredients to the the wet ingredients and beat well. 
• Pour into 2 double-oiled & floured 9" layer cake pans (butter pans & flour, then spray with cooking oil & flour again).
• Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Remove from oven.
• After 10 minutes remove cake layers from pans to wire racks to cool. 
• When layers are cooled, ice with cream cheese frosting and stack.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 - 3/4 t. salt (if using salted butter, add just 1/4 tsp. salt)
1/2 t. Vanilla
3 C powdered sugar

Soften cheese and butter to room temperature, beat together with vanilla and salt until fluffy, and gradually beat in powdered sugar.