I created this recipe just a few days before my sweet French Angora bunny, Violet, was killed. I can’t tell her story for legal reasons. Not yet anyway. But because of her death I decided to dedicate this recipe to her.

I mean, what’s more appropriate to commemorate the life of a rabbit besides carrot cake?

Photo: Jenny Barnett-Rohrs

Violet’s Carrot Cake

Servings –   8 to 12 servings

Time –   1 hour 30 minutes, plus at least 15 minutes’ refrigeration

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 3 cups grated carrots (you can grate the carrots in a food processor fitted with a shredding blade)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
• ½ cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or dried cranberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup canola or safflower oil
• 4 large eggs

Frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 pound (3 3/4 cups) confectioners sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ cup shredded coconut, optional
• Toasted finely chopped nuts and/or toasted coconut, for topping, optional

Instructions:

1. For the cake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour three 9-inch round, 2-inch deep cake pans. Flour the insides of each pan and tap out the excess.
2. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut and raisins.
4. Beat the sugar and oil together until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat until the batter very smooth. Gently stir in the flour mixture – mix only until the dry ingredients disappear.
5. Gently, stir in the chunky ingredients.
6. Divide the batter among the baking pans and place the pans into the oven.
7. Bake the cakes for 40 to 50 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The cakes are properly baked when a toothpick inserted into the centers of the cakes comes out clean> The cakes will just start to come away from the edges of the pans.
8. Transfer the pans to cooling racks, cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto racks to cool to room temperature.
9. For the frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth. Beat in the lemon juice.
10. If you’d like to have coconut in the filling, scoop out about 1/2 of the frosting and stir the coconut into this portion.
11. To frost the cake, place one layer of the cake on a cake plate. If you’ve added coconut to the frosting, use half of coconut frosting to generously cover the first layer. Use an offset spatula or a spoon to smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with the second layer. Frost with the remainder of the coconut frosting. Top with the last layer and use the plain frosting to cover the top of the cake.
12. If you want to top the cake with toasted nuts or coconut, sprinkle on these ingredients now, while the frosting is soft. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, just to set the frosting.