One of my all-time favorite recipes for carrot cake is this one. This recipe is still a favorite of mine, and I got it from a close friend around 12 years ago.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch layer cake |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- 1 pound cooked carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups white sugar
- 1 ½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts
- 1 (8 ounce) can unsweetened pineapple, drained
- 1 cup corn oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 ⅔ cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with wax paper; grease wax paper with butter.
- Combine cooked carrots, flour, white sugar, walnuts, pineapple, corn oil, eggs, cinnamon, baking soda, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl.
- Pour carrot mixture into a food processor, and blend, working in batches if necessary, until smooth. Divide batter among prepared cake pans.
- Bake cakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely, about 1 hour.
- Beat cream cheese, 1 1/4 cup butter, lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract together in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until frosting is smooth.
- Place 1 cake layer on a serving plate and spread with 1/4 of the frosting. Place a second cake layer on top of the first; spread 1/4 of the frosting on top. Place third cake layer on top; frost top and sides with remaining 1/2 of the frosting.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 844 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 100 g |
| Cholesterol | 118 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 19 g |
| Sodium | 492 mg |
| Sugars | 78 g |
| Fat | 48 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I scaled to 11 servings for the cake part as I wanted to bake in a 9×13 pan, I should have made the full amount as the cake was very thin. I used pecans for the walnuts as I do not like walnuts. I reduced the salt to 1/4 tsp as well as baking soda is salty. The cake had an odd gummy texture, even though the toothpick was clean at 30 minutes, I wonder if it was from the cooked carrots as I have only used grated raw carrots previously in carrot cakes. The cake smelled great will baking but I found the spiciness missing, maybe using pumpkin pie or apple pie spice may be better to add more flavour. I halved the frosting part as I was not doing layers, 1/3 probably would have been better. There was no discernible lemon flavour, maybe lemon zest in addition to the juice would have helped. The frosting is very soft as well, extra icing sugar is definitely required. #AllrecipesAllstarsCanada #FacelessNoMore