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.