Nothing sounds more relaxed and delightful than a potluck (just listen to the word roll off your tongue—a combo of steaming, cozy kitchen and good fortune), but as the holiday potluck at the literacy center approached, I admit that I was feeling anxious. Looking at the list of suggested dishes, I began to suspect that I didn’t really have the same taste in food as many of the other people attending—half of the list was meat, which I don’t eat, and I wasn’t even sure what mauby was. (It’s a drink, in case you’re interested, though I still haven’t had the chance to try it.) So I took a deep breath, thought of my winter baking initiative and volunteered to bring a cake.

I have, in fact, made cakes before, but only of the packaged cake mix variety, so this seemed the perfect opportunity to expand my horizons. Because it is the season of root vegetables, I decided to dwell in the C section of the alphabet a touch longer and make a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The recipe in Better Homes and Gardens seemed a little work intensive (three cups of finely grated carrot = almost certain thumb abrasions) but rather simple, and I had a pleasant reunion with an electric hand mixer that had been tucked away on a shelf in our kitchen for many moons. It wasn’t until the cake was in the oven that I realized I’d only put in about half of the baking powder and baking soda that the recipe called for. Here is a good baking lesson: you really should read the lettering on those measuring spoons, no matter how strongly your intuition tells you which one is a full teaspoon.

As it cooled, the cake was looking a little dense. Had it risen enough to be edible? It actually didn’t matter much, because here, dear reader, is an even more important lesson: you could put cream cheese frosting on a shingle, and people would rave about it. The recipe calls for only four ingredients, but it’s an all-star lineup of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and the marvelous pinch hitter cream cheese. I was supposed to sift the flour, but I didn’t, and you know what? It didn’t matter. In the spirit of Christmas, I let Jason lick one of the beaters. Here’s the recipe, adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, in all its brief glory:

• 6 oz cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla with a mixer until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar until it reaches the right consistency.

I was still a little nervous about how the cake would go over with the meat-hungry potluck set, but I needn’t have been. We sang a rather rusty version of Deck the Halls and then set about licking the cake pan clean together.