Not my Grandma Struck's Carrot Cake

I love desserts. I love sweets. This is not something that is new. But, for as long as I can remember, I have been haunted by the idea of carrot cake. Just hearing the words "carrot cake" conjured up awful memories of my Grandma Struck's version of the dessert. (Before I continue with the story, I need to make a disclaimer. My Grandma Struck made a ton of delicious things that I absolutely loved, but these were not one of them.) My Grandma Struck's carrot cake was full of giant, huge chunks of carrots and an overabundance of nutmeg and cloves. I thought it was the most disgusting dessert ever, and because of that, I have not eaten anyin my 20 years upon this earth. However, while talking to my mom one day (how we got to talking about carrot cake is beyond me,) she mentioned that my Grandma Graham used to make carrot cake with baby food carrots, so the chunks of real carrots would not present an issue to me. I am awful when it comes to textures of food, and the reason for me not liking a lot of foods is because of the texture. I decided to try making carrot cake with baby food and see if my problem with carrot cake was indeed the texture of Grandma Struck's, or if I just thought they were plain disgusting. Upon tasting the batter before pouring it into the pan to bake (I am extremely guilty of doing this before baking, but if I was going to die of salmonella I would be dead by now so I don't think it's as big of a deal as people try to make it seem) things were not looking good for this carrot cake. The taste was overwhelmingly carrot-y (not sure that is a word, but it's my blog so I do what I want.) I figured that my mom and sister would eat them, and I could find some friends that would take them off of my hands if I ended up not liking them. We baked them and frosted them with cream cheese frosting, and Mom loved them. I stole a corner of hers because I did not want to take a whole bar if I was going to find them utterly disgusting, but they were actually pretty good. The only spice I put in was cinnamon, and I think it could have been a little bit more. The carrot taste baked out overall, and it is a more subtle carrot flavor that works well with the cinnamon. So the verdict is in: it was indeed the unpleasant texture of my Grandma Struck's carrot cake that had turned me off on this dessert for most of my life. One Pinterest recipe down for the summer, a lot more to go.
Recipe Link: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-bars

Stay classy!