Carrot Cake Favorite

Most of the cakes I make are variations of my basic cake recipe, but this recipe I adapted from my fan-favorite zucchini cake.  Just so you know--I am going to do some shameless bragging about this recipe.  Feel free to skip the rest of this self-gratuitous paragraph.  This is one of the best cakes, and hands down the best carrot cake, I have ever tasted.  As many of you know, Adam is not generally a fan of sweets, but he snuck a cupcake and a mini cupcake before I could take pictures.  This cake pleased everyone from the ninety-five-year-old Grandma, whose birthday we celebrated, all the way down to the toddlers.

Ok.  I'm done now.  Let's get to the recipe.

Cake Ingredients

• 3 Cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Cups dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 Cup vegetable oil
• 3 Cups grated carrots
• 1/2 Cup golden raisins
• 1/2 Cup black (I'm not sure what these are called) raisins
• 1 Cup crushed walnuts

Frosting Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 Cup (2 sticks) butter - this makes a more buttery cream cheese frosting; if you really like cream cheese, use just one stick of butter
• 2-3 Cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla

Mix and Bake (for tips on baking see this post)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together into medium mixing bowl

3. Combine brown sugar and dry mixture in large mixing bowl--mix well
4. Beat together the eggs and oil in the small mixing bowl
5. Add egg and oil mixture to large mixing bowl--add vanilla while mixing these ingredients together (DO NOT OVER-MIX)
6. Your batter at this point will be sort of stiff and sticky like a dough

7. Add carrots, raisins, and nuts, and mix until dispersed--the batter becomes much more moist and like a batter
8. Spray pan with baking spray, and pour batter into pan (use spatula to scrape out mixing bowl)
9. Bake at 325 degrees F for 50 minutes (cupcakes take much less time: about 12-15 minutes for minis and 18-22 for regular)
10. Place pan on cooling rack for 15 minutes
11. Turn cake out onto rack to finish cooling

Mix Frosting (for frosting tips see this post)

1. After putting cake in oven, remove cream cheese and butter from fridge to soften 
2. Cream together butter and cream cheese
3. Add powdered sugar to frosting mixture and mix well; add enough sugar so that it tastes delicious and is stiff enough to hold whatever shape you are going for
4. Mix vanilla into frosting
5. When cake is cool, stack, frost, and decorate