What could be more special when honoring a day of birth, than a golden 6 carrot splurge? Well…. possibly a 6 carat one, but the former makes for a much more satisfying & digestible cake… It happens to not be my Birthday, but if it’s yours I wish you a wonderful one! It is someone’s I know, so I’m making a layer cake & making a sweet veggie the lead.

This cake is similar to my Mom’s awesome carrot cake, which is usually so tall that we need a fork lift to move it. I’m going with a smaller version, a lighter frosting, and nixing the nuts. We have some fresh, sweet, organic farmers market carrots to feature in our batter bake. The secret to a good carrot cake is keeping it moist, so we use extra carrots and will use a food processor to shred them, because I’ve done it by hand- it’s not ideal… 

I’m going with a traditional, 2-layer round cake. I like these because they’re more festive when frosted and they seem birthday appropriate. I also like them because the cake layers bake & cool quickly. We will be topping this one with my combo whipped cream – cream cheese frosting. I engineered this one awhile back combining two flavors I love, but by incorporating equal parts fresh whipped cream, we are able to lighten-up the thicker cream cheese! It is one that will require you to refrigerate the cake afterwards however, since we’re using whipping cream. Well, that’s assuming there is some left!

So, let’s begin!

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5 from 1 reviews

Classic Carrot Cake

Serves: a worthy, frosted, perfectly delicious carrot cake!

Prep time:  35 mins

Cook time:  35 mins

Total time:  1 hour 10 mins

What to get:

• 3 cups shredded carrots (approx 6+ fresh, large carrots), peeled & grated (Strongly recommend using a food processor)
• 2 cups flour (sifted)
• 2 cups sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup canola oil
• dash of ground nutmeg & cloves

Frosting:

• 1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled, for whipping with electric mixer

What to do:

1. Combine all dry ingredients
2. Combine eggs, oil & beat in an electric mixer well
3. To wet mix, fold-in grated carrots & dry mixture slowly)
4. Pour batter into greased & floured 9" round cake pans
5. **(you can also line them with parchment rounds and grease)
6. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes
7. Let cake cool on rack for about 10 min
8. Carefully flip cooled cake rounds onto plate to remove from pan

Make frosting: (best to make while cake cools)

1. In an electric mixer bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, salt & vanilla till smooth.
2. transfer cream cheese mix to another bowl and refrigerate.
3. In a CHILLED metal mixing bowl (preferably) combine chilled whipping cream and 1 tsp sugar and beat with electric mixer on high, till you end up with whipped cream!
4. Return whipped cream to refrigerator to cool for about 5 min
5. Now in cream cheese bowl, gently fold in the chilled whipped cream until just combined.
6. Return frosting to fridge to for another 5 minutes.
7. Frost cake with spatula, starting with top of first cake layer on desired stand or plate.
8. Add second cake layer
9. Carefully frost around sides of both (slowly so not to rip or pierce cake)
10. Lastly frost cake top starting from the middle, careful to push frosting outward)
11. Top with candles!
12. *Store leftover cake in fridge unless you eat it all :)

Notes:

I use parchment paper rounds to line my cake pans, but I do grease them as well. Makes getting the cakes out a bit easier!
The more carrots the better, because you'll want this cake to be moist.
The whiping cream/cream cheese frosting combo can be a little more invloved. If too much to do or you like a heavier frosting, just stick with the classic cream cheese part!

Serving size: depends on how hungry you are

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3.5.3208

I decided on a round layer cake, but this one can be done in other pans and is absolutely great as muffins. If you like a lot of frosting, and this one is light enough to eat more, then just increase amount of whipped cream you make and use another half package of cream cheese in other frosting. Though it’s not my day to celebrate, I will be having a slice of this one later on…