Recipe: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Other than my own chocolate cake, I’m not really big on them. For my birthday I usually request a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Those crunchy bits, with the chocolate caramel…..excuse me. I wandered off for a second.

For snacking, there’s nothing I love more than a great carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. This was one of the first things I tried to perfect when I first took up cooking. I tried it with nuts and without, raisins and other dried fruits, even adding some lemon juice to the frosting until I added so much I curdled it. We’ve been making this version for so many years we wouldn’t dream of messing with it now.

Cakes:
8 eggs
1 1/2 C vegetable oil
1 lb 12 oz sugar
1 tsp salt
1 lb 2 oz bread flour
3 T cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 lbs carrots, grated finely

In a large bowl or mixer, whip the eggs until light and frothy. Add the oil slowly while mixing to combine. Add the sugar and salt. Sift all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to the eggs. Add the carrots last, stirring gently until just combined.

You can use this batter to make two 10″ cake rounds, or a bunch of cupcakes. For the cake, cook at 375 for about 50 minutes, for the cupcakes, cook at 375 for about 15 to 20 minutes. Watch it carefully in the last few minutes, you don’t want to overcook it.

Frosting:
14 oz cream cheese, softened
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz powdered sugar

Beat the ingredients together until smooth.

Spring just screams carrot cake. We’ve made these cupcakes for our Easter dinner, and then again as often as we can make the time. It’s easy to get carrots year round, I don’t know why we forget about this when my December birthday rolls around. But it certainly seems perfect right now.