Carrot Cake

I was trying to come up with a dessert to make for my poker group last week...nothing was inspiring me. I looked into my fridge and saw all these beautiful carrots from the farmer's market. I have not made a carrot cake in a very long time, I have made those great vegan carrot cupcakes but my poker buddies are not vegan and I wanted cake !!

I did some research online, I wanted an easy carrot cake. I found a recipe by Betty Crocker of all people, did some modifications, of course and was very pleased by the results.

Laurie's Carrot Cake

Ingredients

Cake
1 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cardamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded carrots (5-7 medium)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup raisins

Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. honey
4 cups powdered sugar.


1) Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease a 9 by 13 inch pan. The original recipe says you can make this into a layer cake with two 8 or 9 inch round pans.

2) In large bowl, beat sugars, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended.

 3) Whisk together in a bowl flour, spices, baking soda, and the salt.

 4) Add dry ingredients and a teaspoon vanilla to the wet mixture and  beat on low speed 1 minute.
5) Grate carrots to make 3 cups.

 6) Stir in carrots, nuts, coconut and raisins.

7) Pour batter into pan.

 8) Bake for 40 to 45 minutes for the 9 by 13 inch pan, 30 to 35 minutes for the round pans, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on cooling rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

To make the frosting: beat cream cheese, butter, honey and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable. 

It really helps if the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature. I used Nancy's cream cheese which has less gum that the Safeway kind, so I didn't need the 2-3 teaspoons of milk the original recipe called for.

Tricks for frosting cakes: 
1) If the top is very bumpy, turn the cake upside down to frost.
2) Brush away the crumbs from the top and side with a pastry brush before you begin.
3) Always start at the top center of the cake and work outwards.

 4) Don't mess around too much, that just stirs up the crumbs. Use a few strokes to cover the cake.

5) Feel free to use edible plants to decorate around the sides. Mint is a great one.
 I would have done that except that my poker group is mostly guys who don't really care how it looks. It did get rave reviews !! It turned out moist, flavorful and while it was great frosted, could have done well without it too.