Since the commercial part of Easter has to do with Easter Bunnies and their favorite food, carrots, I thought I would share my favorite Carrot Cake recipe! How many of you like to serve carrot cake on Easter? When I was a child, I balked at the idea of putting shredded carrots in a cake! The older I get, the more I LOVE carrot cake. I happen really really enjoy cream cheese frosting so that is probably what first got me eating carrot cake. I think that a cream cheese frosting suits carrot cake particularly well. The key to a really tasty cream cheese frosting is to making your own! Do not buy it in a can! Canned frosting will do when you are in an absolute pinch, but if you want people to really enjoy it, make it yourself! This really applies to all frostings.
I love how moist Carrot Cake is, and this recipe adapted from Candy Jamamas, is particularly moist because it has crushed pineapple and applesauce in it too! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. I apologize for the semi-blurry photo. I will take better ones next time I make this recipe.
- Cake:
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2½ tsp vanilla
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 3 cup grated carrots (do not use the tiny grater for this)
- ¾ cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
- 8 oz can crushed pineapple (drain most of the juice out, but don’t squeeze it dry)
- Frosting:
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 12 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans or 1 9×13 pan. Preheat oven to 350°.
- In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, sugars and vanilla.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and mix well. Stir in carrots, pineapple, and pecans.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes for round pans. Longer if using a 9×13. Toothpick inserted in center of cake should come out clean. The cake will be very dark on top, but not to worry – it’s not burning!
- Allow cake to cool in pans for about ten minutes, then run a knife around edge and carefully turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
- When cool, frost with cream cheese icing.
- Beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add vanilla. Beat in powdered sugar about a cup at a time until well-blended.
Elizabeth Jordan says
My favorite……