Saturday, September 22, 2012

Carrot Cake

It's been a long while since I baked anything or did much cooking.  The weather turned suddenly overcast on Friday.  Combined with all my reading this week and the changing weather, I worked up an appetite for something sweet. In my hurry to whip up the carrot cake (recipe below), I didn't worry about reducing the sugar or finding other ways to reduce the calories. My apologies.

The carrot cake fresh out of the oven.  It needs to cool before frosting.
I think you could easily reduce the sugar called for in this recipe by half and perhaps you can use apple sauce in place of the oil.

In the version I made I didn't have quite enough pecans but I used what I did have (about 1/3 cup). I just put them in the food processor along with the carrots and chopped them all up together.  Often when I've had carrot cake in a coffee shop it has sultana raisins in it though my recipe doesn't call for it.  I didn't have any raisins so I threw in a handful of dried cranberries.




The recipe I've posted is for the full cake.  But since I wanted a snack and I didn't want so much left over carrot cake, I cut this recipe in half. I didn't have a smaller round pan to bake it in so the cake was just a bit flatter (thinner) but it also took less time to bake.  About 30 minutes rather than the 40-50 minutes for the full recipe.  This smelled so heavenly while baking. If you are in a hurry, you can save time by using store bought cream cheese frosting like I did.  I don't want to read the ingredients on the box,  but it tasted pretty good.


Ingredients

Cake

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 cups grated carrots
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  •  

Frosting

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 4 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

  • Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
    2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
    3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
    4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake. 


    This cake was easy to make and very moist and delicious. 
     Do you have a favourite carrot cake recipe?
     If you do, I'd love to hear more about it.

33 comments:

Beth Zimmerman said...

Pineapple is a good addition to carrot cake too! My favorite cakes are Italian Cream Cake, Oatmeal Cake with Brown Sugar Icing, and Carrot Cake. None of them are particularly diet friendly. I may have to experiment with making them moreso!

Joyful said...

Beth, I think shredded pineapple in the carrot cake would be awesome. Thanks for the tip. the other cakes sound good too. I admit a weakness for cakes ;-)

Denise said...

Ilove carrot cake, thanks for sharing.

Stephanie V said...

I don't eat cake any more but carrot cake used to be my favorite. I just enjoyed thinking about yours. Thanks.

Unknown said...

sounds great my friend!!!!

Joyful said...

You're welcome my friend. Hugs. xx

Joyful said...

Stephanie, whatever the reason you have stopped eating cake, you are very disciplined :-)

Joyful said...

It was my friend. Nice chatting with you today. Hugs. xx

Anonymous said...

I love carrot cake and this looks most delicious! Would love to try out your recipe.

Cherie Hill said...

Wow this looks incredible!
Thank you for dropping by Journal of Faith!
Blessings to you!
Cherie

emilyclare said...

yummy! looks delicious :) I love making (and eating) carrot cake!

Vores have said...

Hello Joyful
Uhm, my favorite cake - elsken it.
Thanks for the recipe.
Wish you a good day / good new week :)
Hugs Hanne Bente

Linda said...

Oh, Penny, you have given me a craving for carrot cake, now! :)

KT said...

Hmmm... I am always cutting recipes in half. Even the pre-boxed brownies are so easy to cut!

Carrot cake is one of my favorite desserts. I can't imagine having a "full" receipe around!!

fus said...

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm....yo quiero un trozo de este pastel tan maravilloso.

un abrazo

fus

❀~Myrna~❀ said...

That looks so delicious! I wish you could email me a piece! lol

Joyful said...

LOL. Well it didn't take too long to finish it off.

Joyful said...

KT, I don't know why I didn't think of cutting the recipe in half before. I think that is something I need to do more often ;-)

Joyful said...

Oh I do hope you get a chance to try it soon. It is very good :-)

Joyful said...

Incredible and so easy too! How cool is that?!

Joyful said...

and I bet you make a delicious carrot cake too!

Joyful said...

You're welcome, Hanne. If it is your favourite cake I'm guessing you have made it before. Happy week ahead to you my friend, Knus xx

Joyful said...

Linda, I bet you are a good baker living all those years in Kenya with few convenience foods around.

Joyful said...

fus, estoy tan contenta de que cayó. Me gustaría poder enviar un pedazo de pastel virtual;-)

stardust said...

Now that autumn is arrived, cool and crisp air makes up for the heat and humidity of summer and increases my eating appetite. The carrot cake made my mouth water. Happy autumn to you.

Yoko

Joyful said...

Yoko san, I believe you and I have the same response to the cooler weather. I wish the summer would remain, or at least the sunshine. I do love Fall though and all the Fall colours.

snowwhite said...

There are many autumns in Japan. Autumn for reading, autumn for appetite, autumn for sports, autumn for moon viewing and so on. I think this is the best way for me to spend autumn night. Enjoying your cakes and reading my favorite book!! Thanks for your lovely recipe!!
It is so good you seem to recover.
keiko

Joyful said...

Keiko san, you have such a beautiful way of describing everything. I would love to spend some time with you in person and see and hear of the world through your eyes and voice. Instead I can enjoy through your photos which are always so wonderful. And, yes, I am recovered. Arigatou gozaimasu

Rosemary said...

The cake looks Delicious! "Life is short, eat dessert first!" I'm glad you chose to satisfy your sweet-tooth, sometimes it's more important to live, enjoy, dive in and savour.

Joyful said...

Sometimes a person needs dessert ;-)

clairz said...

This looks delicious. Using apple sauce to substitute for some of the oil is a great idea. It seems like carrot cake recipes always call for so much oil, it can't really all be necessary. I'll try your idea.

Funny, as soon as the nights turn cool we dust off the kitchen stove and start cooking again, too! It was an awfully hot summer here in the desert and we mostly had cereal for supper, night after night.

Joyful said...

It's so true that most of us don't feel like cooking in the heat of summer. I'm glad it has cooled off for you enough to do a bit of cooking ;-)

Mina Joshi said...

Carrot cakes looks delicious. I am not much into baking but this recipe seems to be simple enough for me to follow. Thanks for sharing it.

Mina

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