Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens
The things we do for those we love….
Me personally, I am not a huge fan of carrot cake. I will eat it, yes, but I certainly never crave it and one piece is always enough.
My sister-in-law however, LOVES carrot cake. She sent me an adorable email a few weeks ago telling me how much she loves carrot cake, and reminding me that she had a birthday coming up. She even sent me her favorite carrot cake recipe, saving me loads of time trying to search for one I thought would impress her. Her birthday was actually two days ago, and the cake is sitting safely in my refrigerator just waiting to be delivered to her tomorrow (we’re two hours away). I hated the idea of giving her a birthday carrot cake with a piece missing, so while I was leveling the cake I saved some scraps for myself to eat with the frosting, and have now figured out why I’m not a huge fan…the frosting! I know there are a lot of people out there who love cream cheese frosting, but me? I’m just a good ol’ buttercream kinda gal. The actual cake though…delicious! Jen likes to add 1/2 cup of finely crushed pecans to the batter, and I had every intention of doing that as well, but of course I forgot until 10 minutes after putting the cakes in the oven (oops).
Happy (belated) birthday Jen!
I also have to do a birthday shout out to my younger brother, whose birthday was also two days ago. He requested these fabulous lemon bars for his birthday treat!
Carrot Cake
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2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 cups finely shredded carrot
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
5 cups powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl beat together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon. Add in carrot, vegetable oil and eggs and combine with an electric mixer. Add pecans if desired. Pour into two well greased 9 inch round cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
To make frosting, beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add in powdered sugar in one cup increments, until desired sweetness and consistency is reached. Place frosting in between the two cake layers and use remaining frosting for the top and sides.
If desired place crushed pecans around the edges of the cake (use your hands to press them into the frosting). To make carrot curls for garnish: use a vegetable peeler to make long, thing strips of carrot. Roll the strips and secure with a toothpick. Place in a bowl of ice water in the refrigerator for several hours. Remove toothpick before using as garnish.
I’m sharing this recipe at Recipe Swap Thursday
**Updated recipe and picture here**
