Cream Cheese Frosting

6 oz cream cheese (original Philly Brand please)

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla till light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar.  With the mixer on low, mix til combined, then increase the speed until light and fluffy again.

A must for Carrot Cake.  Completely covers two-layer round cake.  Half the recipe if only frosting the tops and not the sides.

Carrot Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups minus 2 Tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups finely grated carrot

1 cup extra light olive oil

5 eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting

Grease and flour two round cake pans.  To guarantee a clean removal of cake from the pans, also line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a mixing bowl combine the first 6 ingredients, stir well.  Add the next 3 ingredients, beat on low until combined.  Beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes.  Pour batter into pans.  Bake for 40-45 minutes.  The cake is done if a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack, removing layers from pans after 10 minutes.  Peel parchment paper off the cakes and allow to cool completely.  Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

For a 13x9x2 cake, bake for 50-60 minutes.

Birthday Cake - repeating stars in M&Ms

This cake is pretty self-explanatory.  Just make a star in the center (lightly pressing a star-shaped cookie cutter works well), in the M&M color of your choice, and then repeat over and over.  I've done this cake a few times.  It looks best if the outlining M&Ms are close together--especially that second and third level.  So don't worry about even numbers or anything--just keep them almost touching.  You can keep all the outlines solid, but the girls really like how this one kind of drapes down the sides.