Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I am one of those people that looks for reasons to bake something. Birthdays, a coworkers departure, a new baby, stubbing my toe, any reason really. Lucky for me I recently had not one or two, but three reasons to make this cake! It was one of my husband’s co-workers birthday, I had a bag of carrots I needed to use, and I saw this Rose Cake Tutorial and couldn’t possibly wait to give it a try!

This is actually a re-post of this carrot cake recipe, but it is so good and has become my go-to recipe when anyone requests carrot cake or cupcakes. I did increase the frosting ingredients this time around, but only so I would have enough to create the beautiful rose design. Oh, and about the design, it is super easy! All you need is a pastry bag and Wilton 1M decorating tip. The 1M tip is already my favorite for decorating cupcakes with, but I am so glad I found another use for it!

Carrot Cake

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups grated peeled carrots
• 1 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them.

Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1.5 sticks (12 tablespoons) of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.

To assemble a carrot layer cake, frost the top of one cake, place the other cake on top. Frost the sides and top, swirling decoratively. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to set up frosting. Rose Cake Tutorial here.

Source: Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

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