Carrot Cake
Carrot cake is really easy and this recipe results in the moistest I’ve ever had. The only tiring part is grating all those carrots! If a whole pound of carrots sounds like a lot…well it is. I guess you could add less, but your cake wouldn’t end up as moist. You could make a layer cake or even cupcakes, but I decided to bake mine in a bundt pan. The cream cheese icing adds a deliciously tangy finishing touch to the cake.
The real reason I made this is because we had this old cream cheese that was going to expire, so my mom bought carrots and canned pineapple and told me to make carrot cake. It was still delicious, despite the fact that it was forced upon me.
The carrot remains
Here’s what you’re gonna need:
Carrot Cake (adapted from Ina Garten):
- 1 1/2 cups sugar (her recipe called for 2 cups, but I decided to cut back)
- 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil (canola is good)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground or fresh nutmeg
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 lb. carrots, grated (approx. 6-7 average-size carrots)
- 1 cup canned crushed pineapple, drained (reserve 1 tbsp of syrup)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (OPTIONAL) – I don’t like nuts in my cake so I didn’t add them
- 1 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 tbsp reserved pineapple syrup
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour the baking pan(s) you will be using, unless making cupcakes (then just line cupcake tin with paper cups).
2. Beat together sugar, oil and eggs until combined and light yellow. Add the vanilla.
3. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the carrots and pineapple.
It really did not look appetizing at all.
4. Pour batter into baking vessels. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (I don’t know how long cupcakes would take).
5. Allow to cool. If using a bundt pan, flip cake onto a plate or wire rack.
Flip!
6. For the icing: Beat together cream cheese, butter, vanilla and pineapple syrup until smooth and combined. Slowly mix in sugar, then beat on medium speed until smooth.
7. Ice your cake however you want. I decided to pour it over the cake like a glaze. Then I added food colouring to some of the icing and piped on carrots.
As you can see, my decorating is still pretty bad. At least they look like carrots…The icing was also a bit too runny to pipe on like that. It tastes good, though. Looks aren’t everything. Enjoy!
