Carrot Cake

Have a slice!

It was my first time (can you imagine???) making carrot cake. My fb friend Venus shared her recipe with me, describing it as moist. I made this for the first time because I was able to harvest tons of carrots this summer! And true to her promise, this recipe is so moist and good, my older son was saying even without the frosting it would still be good!

I had fun decorating!

For the icing, I used the recipe for cream cheese frosting in pumpkin whoopie pies because I did not have lemon on hand. I used Wilton food coloring (the ones that come in small tubs), placed some of the icing in a ziploc bag to pipe out the "carrots" and the "leaves."  I had to mark first where I would make the slices and placed a "carrot" on the top of each slice. I had more of the colored icing so I added "carrots" to the sides as well.

Venus posted her recipe and share with us fb friends, with the amounts in terms of weight. I converted them to the most convenient/closest volume measurements and came up with the following:

Ingredients:

Cake --
2 & 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
1 &1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 &1/2 sticks (1&1/2 cups) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup white sugar (you may opt to use less if you find this too sweet especially with the addition of the icing)
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped dates/raisin (I used dates - they are also sweet)
1 cup crushed almonds/cashew/pecans/peanuts (I used almonds)

Cream Cheese Frosting --

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 &1/2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 ºF.Lightly butter a 13"x9"x2" baking pan. Line with waxpaper. Set aside. Using electric mixer, beat butter and the two sugars in a large bowl until blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add to sugar mixture.  Add carrots, dates, and almonds. Beat well. Pour batter into prepared pan, bake for 45 minutes or until done.  Cool and prepare frosting.


Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl on medium speed until fluffy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Frost the cake when completely cooled. Leave some icing for the "carrots."

Add enough food coloring to achieve the desired color for the carrot tubers and to the leaves. Have fun decorating, and ENJOY eating!