Favorite of the Day: TAG's Carrot Cake

It’s September—and finally less than 90 degrees—which somehow flips the switch for every American to suddenly crave drinking a Pumpkin Spice Latte while navigating a corn maze in a giant flannel shirt. Don’t worry, I’m guilty of that, too.

Good news: I’m here to tell you there’s more to fall than pumpkin-flavored-everything. Really, all you need is this:

TAG’s Favorite Carrot Cake.

You might ask, “What is a TAG?” but the correct question isn’t what—it’s who.

TAG (Theodore Alfred Guarasci) is my grandfather, or Papaw as our family knows him. His initials not only serve as the name we give to hostesses at restaurants and to baristas at Starbucks (good luck spelling “Jorie” or “Hodapp” in a hurry), but more importantly they made up the name of TAG Market, his grocery store in Ohio.

What’s important about my grandfather is that the man loves (LOVES) carrot cake. His standards, though, for carrot cake are very high: can’t be too dense, too dry, to carrot-y, too crunchy, too smooth, too sweet, or too spiced. At least, those are the characteristics I’ve gathered from our family’s evaluation of multiple types of carrot cakes, and we like to consider ourselves experts.

It’s no secret that the road to any good Italian’s heart is through their stomach, and carrot cake has an express pass. Just mentioning the words causes a Pavlov’s Dog-type response among the famiglia. Well, except for one member.

Full transparency: Carrot Cake has always been one of my least favorite cakes to make. Thankfully, I’ve outgrown that opinion and now I enjoy creating the rustic swirls of cream cheese and pecans. But for the longest time, my grandpa would literally ask for one thing—one thing ever!—a carrot cake, and I would dread making it because of the temperamental nature of the soft cream cheese frosting. So I just wouldn’t make it unless it was for a customer. Seriously, I used to groan at the very thought of having to decorate with that stuff because it would just slide of the cake and be an ugly mess.

What I didn’t realize, though, is that ugly mess tastes FANTASTIC.

So I learned how to make a stiffer, workable frosting, and taught myself how to like making carrot cakes. Clearly, they aren’t going out of style any time soon, especially not when you have 76 Italian relatives.

I’m here to say that I might have been wrong about carrot cake. Though I still don’t understand WHY there are CARROTS in a CAKE, or better yet, WHO came up with that idea(?), I’d like to point out the simple fact that it. tastes. good.

My grandpa-approved carrot cake includes a high ratio of finely shredded carrots and chopped pecans flavored with a cinnamon undertone that seems to refine the aromatic batter. Top the golden orange cake with generous swirls of vanilla cream cheese frosting, and you’ve got yourself breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

At first you think it tastes the best warm from the oven (even without frosting), and then you try it chilled to perfection after the flavors have macerated, and you realize that it just got even better. There’s moisture from the carrots, crunch from the pecans, and silky smooth cream from the frosting. It really has something for everyone.

If you’re looking to complete your fall menu, carrot cake is the way to go. Don’t take it from me, just as my grandpa. He’ll tell you it’s the best thing you’ll ever eat (that is, if I’m in the mood to make it!).

Good news, now I’m always in the mood to make it. ;)

Happy fall, y’all!

jorie