Why am I asking this question? It’s the night before Halloween. Surely there are more important things for me to be thinking about – especially since I have very little interest, generally, in “juicing.” I’ve tried it once or twice, and it’s not necessarily something that has amazed me to the point of wanting an actual juicer so I can do it all the time. So what’s got me thinking about juice tonight?

Well….when the people at Williams-Sonoma ask you to juice something, you juice.

I got an email a few days ago from the team over at Williams-Sonoma, which — by the way — is one of my favorite unattainable guilty pleasure stores in the culinary universe. I drool over their catalogs, especially during the holiday season. I sometimes take a leisurely, wistful stroll through their beautiful store, which is very close to my house….and yet, for my budget, so far away. So an email from the Williams-Sonoma people was a delightful little thrill for me. While OBVIOUSLY I was hoping they’d be offering me an all-expenses paid trip to Tuscany for cooking classes, or a shopping spree in their store, this is reality. Instead, they were asking me to participate in a challenge. A juice challenge.

The concept was to draw inspiration from a favorite dessert, then turn that into a sweet but healthy juice recipe. I worked up the nerve to ask whether I needed a juicer to, um, juice something….but fortunately, the answer was no. Figuring that it couldn’t be a total disaster, I thought that if I could come up with an idea, then why not go for it?

An idea, as it turns out, was not the hard part. Hence, this recipe for Carrot Cake Juice Shots, which I topped with a thickened cinnamon yogurt in order to represent what we all know to be the very best part of a carrot cake: the icing.

You know, it’s not ACTUALLY carrot cake, but it’s a pretty good little drink if you want to toss back something on the sweet side. If you’re up for a juicer-less juice project, give it a shot (pun totally intended).

Get the recipe:
“Carrot Cake” Juice Shots

Check out the selection of blenders and juicers Williams-Sonoma has to offer, in case you’d like to make your own (or get started on an early holiday shopping list!):
Juicers
Blenders