With the creation of Libertyville’s Carrot Cake Latte and Easter hosting duties being right around the corner, I was inspired to bake something worthy of a brunch spread. The perfect combination of a hearty pastry and a delicious dessert, this Carrot Coffee Cake recipe was given to me by my coworker Marissa, who found it on Soko’s Kitchen. If anyone knows Marissa, she is an incredible baker, so I trusted her endorsement easily.

There’s something about recipes that feel like an inheritance of sorts. They aren’t just instructions, but tiny windows into how someone lived. My grandma’s recipes were mostly simple, but thoughtful and always meant to be shared. When I began working on the recipe for the Carrot Cake Latte for our Libertyville Café seasonal menu, I kept coming back to that same idea: creating something simple, thoughtful, and worth passing around.