Husband loves carrot cake, but it’s gotta be just so. It has to have raisins and crushed pineapple, be very moist and have lots of great cream cheese frosting. He is a carrot cake connoisseur.
I have made a few different recipes in the past; and they were all pretty good. It has been a while and I decided again for that perfect recipe.
Several things got my attention:
1. This recipe calls for a lot of shredded carrots. Three cups of carrots for 9×9 pan is a lot of carrots compared to my other recipes.
2. The instructions to shred the carrots, mix in the brown sugar and let it sit for an hour. Love that! The carrots juiced up and took on the flavor of the brown sugar.
3. Mixing in the raisins with the carrot mixture seem to plump up the raisins and I am thinking that contributed to them not sinking to the bottom of the cake. I have had that problem in the past and no issues this time.
4. Lots of cinnamon; which made it taste great and smell amazing while it baked.
Adapted from Allrecipes.com
3 cups Grated Carrots
½ cup Brown Sugar
½ cup Raisins
2 Eggs
¾ cup White Sugar
½ cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
½ cup Crushed Pineapple, drained
1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 9 x 9 inch baking pan.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla until creamy. Stir in the pineapple. (Make sure the pineapple is well drained.) Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Stir in the carrot mixture. Pour evenly into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until cake tests done with a toothpick. When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.
The cake is only part of it; carrot cake HAS to have cream cheese frosting.
½ cup Butter, softened to room temp
8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened to room temp
4 cups Confectioners’ Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Chopped Pecans If Desired
Directions:
To Make Frosting: In a stand mixer or bowl using a electric mixer, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Sprinkle with chopped pecans if desired. Frost the cooled cake.
*Both the cake and the frosting can contain nuts if desired; either walnuts or pecans. I didn’t opt for either.
I think husband liked it. 🙂