Dessert Recipe: Carrot Cake With Everything

Easy Scrumptious Carrot Cake, Ideal for Birthdays Or Weddings

Young and old party goers love this carrot cake! In spite of the many ingredients and steps, this scrumptious but substantial cake is easy to make, and hard to mess up.

Vegan Or Ovo-Lacto Veg: This carrot cake recipe works well and tastes yummy either way. Vegans should stay far away from vegan sour cream, and instead use the vegan vanilla buttercream frosting recipe, with the lemon option.

Healthier Version: Half the sugar, substitute 1/3 whole grain flour, and leave off the frosting. At that point, you could make muffins or quick bread or call it a snack cake.

We made a sugar free version, using a diabetic sugar substitute and no frosting, for an important wedding guest. I wasn't sure if that made it okay for diabetics to eat, but I kept my mouth shut.

Cooking Tips

For this carrot cake recipe, you'll need a large metal cake pan, 10x13 inches. This recipe also makes a nice layer cake, using two 8 or 9 inch round layer cake pans. Carrot cake bakes best in relatively thin layers. You'll need to adjust the time if you use different sized pans.

Because it's so loaded with goodies, this cake needs to get off to a quick start so it'll rise nicely to carrot cake stardom. So I recommend setting the baking rack one step up from the middle of the oven, and using a metal instead of a glass pan for faster heating.

The recipe goes together smoothly and quickly if you get out all the ingredients first and group them according to the 3 steps for assembling - dry ingredients, tasty additions, and wet ingredients. It helps a lot if the butter is very soft and the eggs are almost warm, along with all the other ingredients. That's what I mean by room temperature.

Important: Double the frosting recipe for a layer cake. Halfing the recipe works well, but remember to half the lemon zest and lemon juice for the frosting! And be sure to zest the lemon before you cut and squeeze the juice.

Wait until the carrot cake is absolutely stone cold before frosting, and chill the frosting while you impatiently wait for the cake to cool. Double the frosting recipe for a layer cake.

Nutrition Data Per Serving, Ovo-Lacto version, 133 g: 376 calories, 47 g carbohydrate, 18 g fat, 320 mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber, 7 g protein, good source of Vitamin A. Estimated glycemic load: 29

Nutrition Data Per Serving, Vegan version, 127 g: 300 calories, 48 g carbohydrate, 11 g fat, 302 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber, 5 g protein, very low in Cholesterol, good source of Manganese, and very good source of Vitamin A. Estimated glycemic load: 29

Printable Recipe: Click the print button in your browser to print the recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour (substitute half whole wheat or spelt flour if desired)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 cups finely grated carrot, packed (3 - 4 medium carrots)
• 1 cup crushed pineapple, well drained (reserve juice)

• 3/4 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• Optional: 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup soft butter
• Ovo-Lacto: OR 1 cup veggie spread OR 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 4 eggs, well beaten
• Vegan: OR 2 Tbsp egg replacer + 1/4 cup almond milk + 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/3 cup pineapple juice
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Get out the butter and eggs, and cream cheese to warm up to room temperature
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, oil the pans and dust with flour
3. Position the oven rack 1 step above the middle
4. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment if you want to turn the cake out of the pans after baking
5. Measure and combine the flour, spices, salt and baking powder in a bowl
6. Drain the pineapple and reserve the liquid
7. Peel, grate and measure the carrots
8. Measure the coconut
9. Chop and measure the walnuts
10. Combine the carrots, walnuts, pineapple and coconut
11. Using a large bowl, cream the butter or veggie sticks, add sugar and mix well, then stir in the beaten eggs, or egg replacer and juice
12. Stir in the combined carrot mixture
13. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
14. Spread the mixture in the oiled pan(s), and bake for 45 minutes for a large cake, and about 1/2 hour for smaller pans, 20 - 25 minutes for muffins
15. Cool in pans on wire rack, for 10 minutes. Turn out on rack if necessary. Cool completely before frosting

Vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, with the lemon option, is recommended for the vegan verson of this carrot cake

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• Grated rind of 1/2 lemon
• Juice of one lemon
• 4 cups icing sugar
• Cream the cheese and butter together
• Add the lemon zest and 1/2 the lemon juice
• Gradually sift and mix in 1/2 the icing sugar
• Add the rest of the lemon juice, then more icing sugar as needed
• The frosting should be pretty stiff, and should be chilled covered for 1/2 hour before spreading
• Spread frosting on completely cooled cake
• Optional: sprinkle top with finely chopped walnuts or toasted coconut

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