Originally from Simple Recipes, where it was a depressingly low-fat spongey-looking thing. I added more spices, and some nuts, and it's quite lovely. You can make this better for you by using whole wheat flour in place of some of the white. You can make this worse for you by adding cream cheese frosting.
¼ C butter, softened
½ C sugar
1 egg
¼ C milk
½ tsp vanilla
½ C finely shredded carrot
About 1 C very small walnut pieces
1 C all-purpose flour
1¼ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 X 8" baking pan.
In a small mixer bowl beat butter and sugar till blended. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla. Stir in carrot and nuts.
In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Add to carrot mixture and stir till blended.
Pour batter evenly into pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. (If desired, remove from pan after cooling 10 minutes.) Then, cool completely.
This is particularly nice topped with some sifted confectioners' sugar.