Carrot Cake

Online shopping is so easy and convenient. You can compare lots of prices and products without traveling to millions of stores. No waiting in line or dealing with crazy crowds. Once you make up your mind, you just click and it's shipped right to your doorstep! Or so I thought...

Lately I have been having some issues. I ordered my mom and sis the same Vday gift (I know I am cool). Mom gets hers in three days. Perfect! Jeanie's never comes. At all. Long story short, company says something stupid about it being a seasonal item and not having anymore so they can't replace it. So no Vday gift for the sis. Fail!

Ordered some weight lifting gloves a few months ago. A week after I ordered them, I get an email with some stupid response about how the company cannot fill my order. Two months later, I decide to re-order from a different company. They came in late last week. Semi-fail!

Now I am getting smarter after all these fails. SO I order my friend Michelle's birthday gift two weeks before she is leaving for her hot getaway to Vegas. For sure in two weeks it will be here, right? I track it every day online. Feb 16 it is in Raleigh. Feb 17 USPS says it is delivered in Durham. Feb 19 it is in Indianapolis. hmmmmmmm? I politely tell the company that I have been tracking this thing and I need it here. They respond and say yea they guarantee delivery by the 24th so if it is not there by then to let them know. Sure enough, just like I predicted, no package on Feb 24. Enraged, I email them, not so politely this time, and say that not only should they have done something about it last week when I emailed, but now I won't have the gift for my friend's birthday party.

I guess the birthday cake I built her was better than nothing...

Carrot Cake
fresh squeezed orange juice from 2 medium oranges (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups grated carrots (about 4 medium sized carrots)
1 cup chopped walnuts

preheat oven to 350. beat together juice, oil, and eggs. mix dry ingredients together. add in the wet ingredients. fold in carrots and nuts. pour into cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Frosting
8 oz Neufchâtel cheese, room temp
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

while the cake is cooling, whip ingredients with hand or stand mixer. make sure the cheese is warm before starting. i recommend taking it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before starting to make the cake. when the cake is completely cooled, frost the cake! I added some grated carrots on top!

happy birthday Michelle!!

It's usually the little things in life that make a big difference. Packages that don't arrive on time make me incredibly angry. A simple "thank you" makes me feel warm and fuzzy. People that use the wrong door and walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk drive me nuts! Little notes and cards mean the world to me. Seeing someone smile from ear to ear while cutting into her birthday cake is priceless! 

A smart ass man once told me, "seems like things never go quite as you plan." It ended up being a fantastic birthday party, even without the gift I ordered and I knew we would celebrate after the trip! Tonight we had din din plans tonight to catch up, celebrate birthmonths/days and hear about the hot Vegas trip. That did not go quite as planned either. But the girly, heart to heart chat was way better! Gift was exchanged. Dessert was still consumed. And necessary chatting was completed! :)