Carrot Cake

Adapted from: All Recipes
Made by: Cathy

I'm not much of a cake person, but carrot cake is one of my favorites. I made this for my sister's Lunar birthday. I adapted the recipe from Allrecipes.com based on one of the reviews. One of the users consolidated all the reviews and came up with her own recipe.

I had rave reviews for this cake. Gary liked it and he told me he didn't like carrot cake. The ones he's had before were dry and didn't taste good. My BIL thought it was something store bought (yes!). My family thought it was great, and they usually hate sweets. They did say the frosting was sweet, but again, the DO hate sweets.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained (I forgot to add this)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans (I omitted)

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans (I omitted)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 round 9" cake pans.
2. Grate 6-7 medium carrots to make 3 cups. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugars, vanilla, and pineapple. Mix in dry ingredients. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans if desired. Pour equal amounts into prepared pans.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.


To Make Frosting:
1. In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

I added 2 cups of confectioner's sugar initially to taste. I then added more sugar by the half cup to my desired sweetness.


In my excitement to eat my first ever carrot cake, I forgot to take a picture of the cut piece. It was so good.

Next time, I'm going to try it with the crushed pineapple to see how it tastes. I'm also going to try cupcakes.