"COOPER FAMILY'S CARROT CAKE"

2 cups grated carrots
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup English walnuts, chopped
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup raisins
2 Tablespoons shortening
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of cloves
Cook 30 minutes and cool.
Then sift:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Then add chopped walnuts. Then add flour mixture to the above
carrot, walnut, raisin and spice mixture stirring only until
flour is dampened. Bake 1 hour at 325 F. Makes 1 loaf or cake.

OPTIONAL: *You can use 1 small can or 1 cup pineapple that has been
drained BUT save the pineapple juice. Put the 1 cup of pineapple in the
carrot, walnut, raisin and spice mixture and cook and use the pineapple
juice instead of water. Candied cherries may be used in the nuts and
flour mixture IF the mixture is cooled enoughed. If the cake is baked
good and if it is wrapped good, it will keep almost indefintely.

HISTORY NOTE: This was my Grandmother Frances Cooper's Carrot Cake recipe. The
recipe is at least 42 years old. The Cooper family is my father's family.