Double Chocolate Carrot Cake: National Carrot Cake Day

Today is National Carrot Cake Day, and I love carrots, especially when a major ingredient in  cake!  I used to bake carrot cakes in coffee cans. Remember coffee cans? Now my coffee beans come in recyclable paper bags, so no baking in those. I make my carrot cake in a bundt pan, but you can use a square 8" pan or 2 small loaf pans (1 large) for this recipe. You'll love this Double Chocolate Carrot Cake. This recipe is adapted from Southern Food. My adaptation makes it a bit more chocolatey.. no big surprise!

At my farmers markets we have quite a variety of carrots, however, I usually use plain old carrots in this cake..

Double Chocolate Carrot Cake

Ingredients
1-1/2 cup finely grated carrots
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cup wholewheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (best quality, of course)
1-1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 handfuls of dark chocolate, chopped: 65-75% cacao

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
In large bowl, combine carrots, sugar & oil. Pour water over mixture.
In separate bowl, combine rest of ingredients. Add to carrot mixture & mix well.
Pour 1/2 of batter into non-stick or lightly oiled 8" square pan or bundt pan or loaf pan.
Throw in chopped chocolate pieces.
Pour rest of batter over this.
Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes... if you can wait.

The original recipe called for frosting, but it doesn't need it. Plus, this is a great cake to toast for breakfast!