A real carrot cake

In my family, carrot cake is a sign spring is coming. I don't know what it is about February and March, but something about those months just has me reaching for the carrots and the cream-cheese frosting every year. The Carrot Cake Pan from King Arthur Flour offers a nice touch to my typical carrot cake. The glazed stoneware pan is perfect for baking a moist cake--and you can pop the cake out easily if you're planning to decorate it. However, just adding a coat of cream-cheese frosting on the cake and leaving it in the pan can make for an elegant serving option: since the pan is shaped like a carrot, it makes for a fun touch for your table.

The Carrot Cake Pan was designed to work with existing recipes. It works equally well with recipes calling for an 8-inch square or round pan, and can even work for a recipe calling for a 9-inch round pan if need be. The makers note that the 11-inch by 6.5-inch pan can hold 5.75 cups of liquid and suggest that it would be a good fit for carrot gelatin salad and other carrot-based dishes. The Carrot Cake Pan is not only oven-safe: it is also dishwasher-safe and be used in both the microwave and the freezer.