Carrot Cake

I was in the mood for a carrot cake today. My daughter was so thrilled when I said it’s baking day today. She loves carrots and having it in a cake makes it even yummier. This recipe is moist and not very sweet. If you’re the type who doesn’t like spices, you can totally remove them and still enjoy your carrot cake.

 Ingredients

For the cake batter:

1½     c. all-purpose flour

1        tsp. baking soda

1        tsp. baking powder

½       tsp. iodized salt

½       tsp. ground cinnamon

½       tsp. ground nutmeg

2        large eggs

¾       c. sugar

1        tsp. vanilla essence

¾       c. canola oil

2        c. shredded carrots

For the cheese frosting:

200g or 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

¾       c. unsalted butter

1¼     c. confectioner's sugar

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 175ºC. Line a 9-inch round pan with baking paper.

2. Mix all the first six dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar or put it in number 3 speed using a mixer.

4. Add the vanilla and oil to the egg-sugar mixture and whisk again.

5. Now fold in the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture using a spatula or spoon.

6. When the batter is already mixed well, add the shredded carrots and fold as well.

7. Pour the batter into the lined pan and cook in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Check the cake with the use of a skewer; it should be done when it comes out clean.

8. Let the cake cool down while preparing the frosting.

9. Combine all the frosting ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well until there are no more lumps.

10. When the cake has cooled down, cover with frosting and then decorate.

Tips:

- Make sure you use a cream cheese brand that you have already tried before so you don't end up with a Class B frosting. I advise not to buy the cream cheese brand that is on my ingredients picture. Expensive doesn't always mean good quality. I'm glad I had an already opened cream cheese pack in my fridge and was able to save my frosting.

- Some bake shops use (orange colored) white chocolate to decorate their cakes moulded as carrots. What I did for mine, I added a few more spoons of confectioner's sugar onto my left over frosting and colored them orange and green with food color to make my carrot designs. It just takes more practice to make the shape though, as you can see from the picture, it's not perfect but my daughter loved the carrot designs. 

- I always use canola oil for all my recipes except for salads. You can check out the WebMD site for more info.