The Best Carrot Cake

What kicks off the fall transitioning into winter season better than a warm, spicy-full carrot cake? My earliest memories of carrot cake are “EW!”. As a kid I remember dry, crumbly carrot chunk-filled cake covered with thick sugary icing. Well, we have changed the game with this recipe. Because of these vivid carrot memories  I was not running toward this when I saw the recipe card. I decided to give it a try and I’m very glad I did because I have been converted to a carrot cake fan.

Since the base of this cake is carrots I figured I should give them the respect they deserve…so I shredded all the carrots by hand. Now, if there is a better way to do this PLEASE let me know. My hand nearly fell off after shredding 3 cups of carrots through the grader, but as you can tell it is still attached. I debated using the pre-shredded carrots that you can get at the store, but I personally find them to have a bitter taste that I do not enjoy. However, it might be worth a try if you don’t have a million years to shred carrots (ok this maybe took 30 minutes, but felt much longer!)

Once the carrots are prepped the rest is very easy. When mixing the ingredients together, I was a bit perplexed because this recipe instructs you to mix the wet ingredients to the dry. But just go with it! It all mixes together very easily. 

For this cake I added in some extra spices and flavor by adding in nutmeg, salt, and vanilla. The original recipe only calls for cinnamon, but I wanted this to be a super warm and inviting cake with extra flavor. Of course you can add in or remove any spices you’d like.

Bake the cake at 350° for about 1 hour and test with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Be sure to not over bake this otherwise it will turn out dry.

Once the cake is completely cooled you can frost it with your favorite cream cheese icing, whipped cream, ice cream…or leave it as-is. I topped this baby with cream cheese icing and it really pulled all of the flavors together and added an extra layer of texture. Toward the end of the week the cake does tend to dry out, so I added a small scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on top and it was DIVINE. But of course any ice cream will do!

Carrot Cake:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cups unsweetened apple sauce (or 3/4 cup canola oil)
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• Water (about 1/2 cup)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°

Blend together flour, baking powder & soda, spices and sugar. Start mixing at a low speed and add the apple sauce (or oil). Add eggs to batter one at a time. Once combined, add the vanilla, carrots and water.

Put the mixture into a greased and floured 10″ tube pan. Bake 1 hour or until done (by toothpick test). Frost with cream cheese icing, or whatever you fancy!

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