When I was growing up in California, carrot cake was a very popular and frequent dessert. Luckily in the US, carrot cake is often made with pecans. Unfortunately, in the United Kingdom it usually has walnuts, and they make my mouth itchy. This recipe for carrot cake is based on the American version, and it is loved by my international friends. The moist, flavourful cake almost makes you forget that you are eating vegetables in the dessert. And the decadent cream cheese icing (aka frosting) tops off the beautiful cake.
There are many different variations of the recipe for carrot cake. I’ve seen it with ginger, lemon, without nuts, and many types of decorations. If I am in a hurry, I just ice the cake and serve it. However, if I have more time then I like to get creative with the decorations. Sometimes I dye some of the icing orange and green and pipe mini carrots around the top. The photo here shows decoration with pecan halves, and I have seen cakes with grated carrot on the icing. When I made this around Halloween, I put some candy corns on the top, but I must admit that was too sweet! Finally, one combination that was kind of nice and festive was sprinkling pomegranate kernels on the icing. It added a bit of tartness to the flavour and looked very pretty.
Ingredients
Cake
4 eggs
2 c granulated sugar
1 1/4 c. oil
2 c plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
4 c grated carrots (about 4 med/large carrots)
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 c chopped nuts (I use pecans) and more for decorating
Icing
1 large container (300 g) cream cheese
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 c icing sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F.
First, in a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Then add sugar and oil. Mix well. Next, in a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Then slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and whish for about 2 minutes. Finally, fold in the carrots, vanilla, and nuts and mix well.
Turn the batter into an ungreased 13 X 9 inch pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. It will be a moist cake but should be firm. Set aside to cool.
For the icing, soften the cream cheese by mixing and then add melted butter and vanilla. Slowly add the icing sugar as you continue mixing and it should form a paste-like consistency. Lastly, spread the icing on the cooled cake and either serve immediately or refrigerate up to three days.
If you would like to decorate the cake, you can sprinkle with chopped pecans, use pecan halves or decorate with coloured icing (e.g. carrots and/or greenery).
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