I don’t know why, but Spring often makes me think of carrot cake. So when I was trying to decide which recipe I should make this month, the answer was pretty obvious. Maybe it’s because Easter often falls in April, or because Easter reminds me of picking fresh carrots from the garden when I was a kid. Either way, it’s always a good time to bake a cake. 

So for this month’s gravestone recipe, I wanted to try my hand at making Kim’s carrot cake. This recipe comes from the gravestone of Kimette Lee DeCota, from Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Kim passed away in August of 2014 at the age of 57.

Reading her obituary on Find A Grave, you will see many references to food and cooking. It describes a passionate woman who loved her family and community. Kim was very active in the church, cooking meals as well as helping her parents in the kitchen among other things. 

I would love to know more about the recipe inscribed on her gravestone. Was this her go-to recipe? Maybe her signature dessert? I may never find out, but it warms my heart to know that someone so passionate about cooking can continue to share their passion from beyond the grave.

Here is the recipe, as written on the gravestone:

Kim’s Carrot Cake

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 cups corn oil
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 1-1/2 cups shelled walnuts, chopped
• 1-1/3 cups puréed cooked carrots
• 3/4 cup drained crushed pineapple

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9-inch springform pans.
2. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, eggs, vanilla. Beat well. Fold in the walnuts, coconut, carrots, pineapple.
3. Pour batter into the prepared pans. Set on the center rack of the oven and bake until the edges have pulled away from the sides and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 minutes.
4. Cool on a cake rack for 3 hours. Fill and frost the cake with the cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Doubling the frosting recipe is highly recommended.

• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Juice of 1/2 lemon (optional)

1. Cream the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl.
2. Slowly sift in the confectioners’ sugar and continue beating until ingredients are fully incorporated. The mixture should be free of lumps.
3. Stir in the vanilla, and lemon juice if desired.

Serve with love.

This recipe is very easy to follow and has very detailed instructions. I found it interesting that the recipe takes up almost all of the room on the gravestone. On the left hand of the stone is an ingredient list and directions to make the cake, while the right-hand side has the ingredient list and instructions to make the frosting. I love that the first note is to double the frosting recipe. I like the way Kim thinks! 

I made this recipe in two parts, first baking the cake and then frosting the next day. For some reason, I only have one spring-form pan so I had to bake the layers one at a time. I really need to rectify that. After the first cake layer was done baking, I took it out of the pan and sat it on a wire rack to cool. I wiped down and reassembled the spring-form pan and poured in the last of the batter. I then put that in the oven to bake.

The recipe calls for the cake to be cooled for three hours. After I took the second layer out of the oven it was fairly late in the evening, so I placed both layers in the fridge to cool overnight.

After work the next day, I set to work making the frosting. I took the cake out of the fridge and placed it on the table to warm up a bit while I mixed the frosting. I know the recipe recommends doubling the frosting, but I found that one batch made more than enough frosting for me. 

Although the instructions were incredibly easy to follow, I do think I messed up a little bit. I baked each cake layer in the oven for the instructed 50 minutes, but didn’t check on them at all. 50 minutes turned out to be too long for my oven; I think I over-baked the cake. It wasn’t burned or anything like that, but the edges became very hard and crisp. So hard that I had trouble cutting the cake when it came time to try a piece. If I were to make this recipe again, I would start checking on the cake at about the 30-minute mark and doing a toothpick test to see if it’s cooked through. 

I also think I didn’t frost the cake properly. I think I might be a bit rusty at making cakes! I was afraid to use up too much frosting in between the cake layers so I frosted that section sparingly. I shouldn’t have been worried though, as I had way too much frosting left over. 

I hoped that the frosting would help moisten and soften the cake a bit, but it’s still a bit hard to cut. Other than the human error on my part, this recipe turned out great. This delicious cake is sweet, and the shredded coconut adds a nice flavor to the mix. I would definitely make this one again! 

Have you tried this recipe? I would love to hear how yours turned out, and if you have any baking tips for me. 

Thanks for reading!