CC90X: Extreme Carrot Cake Workout!

I've been borrowing my friend's P90X workout DVDs to try to get myself into some kind of shape for the summer.  Three nights a week, I go to bed in my workout clothes, set my alarm to "catapult," and the next morning, at 6 a.m. sharp, I'm launched into the spare bedroom for an hour of whatever P90X Guy wants to inflict on me that day.  By the time I'm fully awake, my workout is done. 

I was excitedly touting the benefits of working out while asleep to Husband.  How the self-satisfied jabber of P90X Guy doesn't get to me at all while I'm still firmly entrenched in dreamland, how I emerge from the room wide-eyed and chipper at 7 a.m., which is quite unlike the usual state of affairs, and, in fact, I don't even remember working out at all!  It's like it never happened, except for all of these weird muscles. 

Husband, for his part, speculated that what is actually happening each morning is that, after sleepwalking over to my laptop and inserting the DVD, I promptly slump over onto the guest bed and fall asleep again.  I was prepared to work myself up into all kinds of outrage over the accusation, but then I thought about it.  There's no actual proof that I work out.  Nobody sees me do it, and my own memory can't be trusted.  There's the occasional BOOM! the children tell me they hear from the next room as I land ungracefully from one of the airborne maneuvers, but, really, that could just be me falling out of bed.  Maybe I'm dreaming the whole thing?  Maybe my cheery, wakeful state is more accurately explained by the extra hour of sleep I just stole?  Husband claims to see no muscles at all. 

Anyway, I bring this up because I made a carrot cake on Saturday to be auctioned off at my farm's fundraiser that night.  It was a large, double-layer carrot cake with extra cream cheese frosting and chopped pecans.  I had to deliver the cake right before the event, so I packaged it up in a large box, complete with the circular cutting board it was resting on and a heavy, glass cake dome to prevent anyone from sneezing on it at the auction.  Sneezed-on cakes tend to generate smaller bids than non-sneezed-on cakes. 

I parked in the closest lot, which was just across the river.  I carried the cake over the footbridge and down the much-longer-road-than-I-remembered to the Charles River Museum of Industry building where the event was taking place.  If it was a quarter-mile walk, that would be generous.  But let me tell you, people, by the time I arrived at the building, taking pains not to tip the box at all so the dome wouldn't slide into the sides of the cake, struggling to open the door one-handed, my arms were shaking.  Once I navigated the halls, ramps, stairs, mandatory small talk, and made my way over to the cake's resting place on the far side of the room, my arms were like jello.  I could barely lift the thing out of the box.  Also, I was really hungry for carrot cake.

The following day, my arms were sorer than they've ever been after P90X.  So either Husband is right and I'm sleeping through my workouts, or I've just stumbled across the best upper body regimen ever.  Gingerly carry a carrot cake a quarter of a mile in any direction, and when you get to your destination--and this is the important part--don't eat it. 

I look forward to my royalty checks!

Comments

[Julia]

Maybe you were sore from exhibiting such incredible self-control. I would have eaten the cake for sure.

Hope the event was a success! Sorry to have missed it.

[adele]

Oh my. I want that cake!

(Though as kitchen workouts go, I think I prefer kneading bread dough. Less chance of spectacular disaster if my arms give out!)

[Judy]

I was the VERY lucky winner (Ok, truth be told, I stalked the bid sheet when they announced the section of items was closing. Fair is fair, I say, but I digress...) This cake was BY FAR!!! the most amazing carrot cake I've ever had. I was at the auction with 5 friends, and after a few left, I hunkered down with that mama (the cake) and the other mamas (the friends) and we each had gigantic pieces that would have been illegal in some states. The crust, the layers, the frosting - amazing! Please, please, please can we have the recipe? I mean, like, if you wanna give it, that's cool.

[Husband]

Tammy's carrot cake is my absolute favorite and better than any restaurant or bakery in my experience. I request it every year for my birthday.

[Laura]

I'm one of the lucky mamas (friends of cake winner) who got to indulge in what can only be described as a spiritual cake-eating experience on Saturday night, post-benefit. That cake is... no words to describe it. Suffice it to say, your carrot cake provided me one of the greatest culinary highs of my life - and it didn't involve chocolate. Truly remarkable. Am still nibbling on a chunk I was allowed to bring home - which I would have stolen, had cake-winner not offered it. Please let me know where/when you plan to auction off another one - I am there, checkbook and fork in hand.

[Kirsty]

That carrot cake looks deliciously yummy... I'd love to make it but have no idea how to find equivalent ingredients as a Brit living in France: canola oil - I have no idea what that is; cream cheese - in bricks? WTF? Any help would be much, much appreciated as carrot cake is my absolute total favourite ever...

[melch]

Taking pains not to drool on my keyboard. When you come up with a workout that involves eating carrot cake, let me know =)

[Tammy]

melch: Ha, you will be the first to know!

Kirsty: See my e-mail. You can substitute vegetable oil for canola oil (butter, too, though the oil tends to give the cake more moistness). The cream cheese here tends to come in half pound bricks. You need a full pound of cream cheese (453 grams). Hope you try it!

Laura: Thank you so much! I've sent you an e-mail.

Husband: I'm surprised that cake made it out of the house alive!

Judy: I'm so glad you won and that you liked it! See my e-mail for the recipe. In the meantime, if anyone else would like the recipe, it's here: http://www.foodonthefood.com/food_on_the_food/2008/02/carrot-cake-for.html
(forgive the horrible photo and ridiculous post)

adele: Kneading bread dough is a satisfying workout, isn't it? I find it to be great therapy for my arthritic wrists.

Julia: The event was great. Big turnout, excellent food by Newbury College culinary students, lots of fun had by all.

[Aaron]

Maybe a bit late for Kirsty, but FYI: canola oil is called rapeseed oil in the UK. Not sure what it's called in France, though.