Happy Thanksgiving!
Instead of cooking something this week, I decided to bake! I love baking but it can be a bit tricky because you have to make sure you have the exact amount of ingredients. It’s not like cooking where you can just add a bit of this or a dash of that. One simple mistake, like too much baking soda, could ruin the whole thing.
This Thanksgiving I visited by parents in Courtenay. I decided I wanted to surprise them with a delicious carrot cake. I just needed one thing: a great recipe! I searched online for the perfect one. I knew I wanted the cake to be light, simple, and moist so I came across a recipe online called “Incredibly Moist and Easy Carrot Cake”. You can find the recipe here!
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 ¼ cups canola or other vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
3 cups grated, peeled carrots (I used 3 large carrots)
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional, I opted in)
½ cup raisins (optional, I opted out)
Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (I preheated to 375 because my oven is off by 25 degrees)
Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon
In a separate bowl, combine oil, sugars, and vanilla. Whisk in eggs one at a time until combined
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 parts, gently stirring until they disappear, and batter is smooth
Stir in carrots, nuts, and raisins
Divide batter between two cake pans. Bake until tops of cake layers are springy when touched and when a toothpick is inserted into the center of the cake and comes out clean. I baked them for about 30 minutes
Cool cakes in pans for about 15 minutes, then place them onto cooling racks to cool completely
Now it’s time for the icing! I decided not to use the icing recipe that was included in this recipe. The one I used is called “The Best Cream Cheese Frosting”. You can find the recipe here! Make sure your cakes are completely cooled before icing them. Otherwise, the icing will just melt and drip off the cake.
Ingredients
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened
8oz cream cheese softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
4 cups powdered sugar
Directions
Combine butter and cream cheese in a bowl and beat until creamy, combined, and lump-free
Add vanilla and salt and stir well
With mixer on low, gradually add powdered sugar one cup at a time until combined
Place the first cake layer on the plate it will permanently be on and frost just the top
Place the second layer on top of the first and now completely frost the top and sides of the top and bottom layers.
Sprinkle pecans if you would like!
My family absolutely loved this cake and it was so much fun to make. The cake to icing ratio was perfect. I don’t like it when cakes are over-frosted, it takes away from the complex flavours of the cake itself, so this amount of icing was absolutely perfect. It completed the cake very nicely. I will definitely be making this one again.
Enjoy!