I have been making this deliciously moist carrot cake for over 30 years. Someone gave me the recipe back in the eighties. I actually altered the original frosting recipe a little bit. Carrot cake has been requested by my sons for most of their birthdays, and pretty much every Thanksgiving; it is a tradition in our home.
You will need 4-6 carrots, depending on how fat they are, and you need large eggs. Parchment paper just guarantees the cake to come out easily from the pan. Any vegetable oil can be used.
Parchment paper will help get your cake of the pan with ease. Make a template of the bottom of the pan with a pencil.
Fold the paper into four lining up the lines you drew. Cut out your template.
Place the first folded template on top of your second folded parchment and cut out your second circle.
You need to butter the sides of the pan. If you use a baggie, your fingers will stay clean.
Pans are now ready.
After you peel the carrots, you need to grate them on a large bowl, since the carrots tend to fly as they get grated. Grate the skinny end of the carrot first so you have something to hold onto as you grate. You will need two slightly packed cups.
Chop the pecans finely, you need 1 cup.
When you are measuring flour spoon the flour into the measuring cup and scrape off the top with the flat side of a knife.
Sift together 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of sugar with 1 tablespoon cinnamon and 2 teaspoons baking soda. Stir in 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil. The mixture will be thick and look weird but its normal.
Now add 1 egg at time, stirring after each egg till you have reached 4 eggs. This mixture is weird, as you can see it gets thicker with the first egg, which is opposite of what you think should happen. This mixture is really too thick to try to use a electric mixer, its best to beat it by hand.
This is how the mixture looks after 2 eggs, still thick.
After adding the 4th egg and stirring till combined, the mixture becomes smooth.
Add the carrots and stir till combined.
Add the pecans and stir till combined.
Cakes need to bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool 20 minutes, then run a knife around the edges, flip the pans over onto your hand and gently peel off the parchment paper, and cool on a rack. If you do not have a rack just place them on a piece of foil on the counter.
The ingredients needed for your icing. The butter and cream cheese need to be softened at room temperature. It usually takes 1-2 hours to soften depending on your climate. You also need whole pecans to decorate the top.
In a large mixing bowl add 1 stick of butter and 8 ounces of cream cheese, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Let soften at room temperature for a few hours.
You will need an electric mixer for this stage. Once your butter/cream cheese mixture has softened whip on high speed ‘til the mixture is creamy and fluffy…a couple of minutes. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time (for a total of 3 cups) to prevent a powdered sugar dust explosion in your house. Start the mixer on low each time you add another cup of sugar till combined, then increase speed to make smooth and creamy.
I like to place foil strips around the bottom edge of the cake. Once iced you can remove the foil pieces so your cake plate stays clean on the cake edges. Place one cake on a flat surface, place a blob of icing and spread on the top, the add the second cake layer. Then coat the sides with a thin coat, often called a crumb coat. As you can see I am only applying the crumb coat in this pic. Once the sides have the crumb coat, place a blob of icing on the top, and use the remaining icing to cover the sides. Place whole pecans around the top of the cake.
My favorite time of day to eat carrot cake is in the morning with a cup of coffee…that way the calories do not really count.
cARROT CAKE RECIPE
Serves: roughly 15 people
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 35-40 minutes
INGREDIENTS
2 sheets parchment paper
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups grated carrots, 4-6 medium carrots
1 cup pecans, chopped finely
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
preparation
Cut up templates of parchment to line the bottom of your cake pans, instructions above.
Butter the sides only of your pans.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Peel the carrots, and grate 2 cups.
Finely chop 1 cup of pecans.
In large bowl sift together flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda.
Add the oil to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
Add 1 egg at a time to the flour mixture, beating mixture after every egg. The mixture will seem thick till the 4 egg is added.
Add the carrots, and mix till combined.
Add the pecans and mix till combined and smooth.
Pour into the 2 cake pans.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center is clean.
Let cakes cool for 20 minutes, run knife around edges, flip pans upside down onto your hands to remove parchment and let cool before applying frosting.
Frosting Instructions are detailed above. Once frosted, line the edge of the top of the cake with whole pecans.
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING RECIPE
Prep Time: 2 hours to soften butter, 20 minutes to prepare and ice cake
INGREDIENTS
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
roughly 30 whole pecans
preparation
Combine butter, cream cheese, a vanilla in large bowl.
Let butter and cream cheese soften and come to room temperature, about 2 hours.
Mix a hand mixer beat the butter mixture on high till fluffy and creamy.
Add 1 cup at a time of powdered sugar, and start the mixer on low and increase speed to high, so powdered sugar will not fly everywhere. Beat mixture till smooth and creamy.