Let me start by wishing everyone a happy new year. Carrot cake is K’s favorite and I have been making this cake for years, but it has always been a single layer with no frosting just to cut some calories 
. When we were invited to a friend’s house for Christmas, I took that as my opportunity to feed the blog and friends with carrot cake.
My son does not like walnuts, but carrot cake in my opinion had to have walnuts. So, I asked him if I could add the nuts and he was totally against it. Then, we convinced him by saying that we will bake a small cake with no walnuts. I took a couple of ladles of the batter before adding the nuts and baked a small cake in a pyrex bowl. He decorated the small cake with sprinkles and hearts and also mentioned that I was supposed to write that in the blog . This is his little cake.
We always struggle a lot with cake decoration because I have not had the time to experiment. I only bake the cake and make the frosting and let K handle the applying of the frosting. He also suggested that I just sprinkle the walnut pieces on top and I did the same although I was tempted to add more color . Overall, the friends loved it and we had a wonderful lunch at their house. I had bookmarked this recipe tons of years ago and have no idea what the source is. The only change I made today was to reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup. Off to the recipe.
Carrot Cake
Moist carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients:
- walnuts - 3/4 cup - toasted and chopped
- all purpose flour - 2 cups
- salt - 1 tsp
- baking soda - 2 tsp
- cinnamon - 2 tsp
- sugar - 1 3/4 cup
- oil - 1.5 cups
- eggs - 4
- vanilla extract - 1 tsp
- raisins - 3/4 cup - coated with flour
- carrots - 3 cups - finely grated
- For Frosting
- butter - 3/4 cup - unsalted (1.5 sticks)
- cream cheese - 12 oz
- powdered sugar - 3.5 cups
- vanilla extract - 1.5 tsp
Instructions:
Prepare two 9 inch cake pans by greasing and flouring them. Lightly toast the walnuts and chop them. Sift all purpose flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and keep aside.
Beat sugar and oil until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients little by little and beat to combine. Add raisins, carrots and walnuts and mix using a spatula.
Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake in a 325F preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. When done allow the cakes to cool and prepare the frosting.
For frosting whisk the butter and cream until fluffy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and whisk until a smooth frosting is obtained. Frost the cooled cakes and decorate as per choice.
1. Half the recipe and bake a single 9 inch cake.
2. I have replaced one egg with flax meal when I made the single layer cake.
1 year ago: Black Bean Pineapple Salad
Pictorial
1. Lightly toast walnuts and allow to cool.
2. Chop the walnuts and keep aside.
3. Sift all purpose flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
4. Sifted dry ingredients. Keep aside.
5. Take sugar and oil in a bowl.
6. Beat well until the mixture is smooth.
7. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
8. All the eggs have been added.
9. Add vanilla extract. Mix well.
10. Add the dry ingredients little by little and beat to combine.
11. Dry ingredients have been incorporated.
12. Add the raisins coated with flour. Mix with spatula.
13. Add the carrots.
14. Mix with a spatula.
15. Add the chopped nuts.
16. Mix to combine.
17. Grease and flour two 9 inch pans.
18. Evenly distribute the batter into the two pans. Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 40 - 50 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
19. Out of the oven. It took exactly 40 minutes for me.
20. Cool the cakes on the wire rack and prepare the frosting.
21. Take cream cheese and butter in a bowl and whisk until fluffy.
22. Add vanilla extract and mix.
23. Add the powdered sugar.
24. Whisk until a smooth frosting is obtained.
25. Frost the cake.
26. Decorate the cake as per choice.
With the snow in the background. Yeah, we had a white Christmas.
The full cake with walnuts on top. You can see a few sprinkles on top since I was extremely tempted to add color, but then decided to leave it plain, simple and elegant as suggested by K.
Enjoy!
Sending to Bake Fest #15 hosted by Sumee.
The pix instructions r SUPERP! M baking it now!
I’ll have some of the smaller cake without walnuts please! So pretty.
Looks yum.
It’s so yummy cake. love the step by step instructions too.
That cake looks awesome.. I also struggle with kids not wanting nuts in the cakes, banana cake without walnut! doesn’t make sense right.. But that small cake looks CUTE. Thnx for linking up..
Love the double layered carrot cake…looks yum!
Beautiful and very attractive cake,marvellous frosting.Happy new year wishes to you and your family.
Awesome looking carrot cake. Love the mini cake too
Wish you and your family a very Happy & Prosperous New Year.
The cake is a piece of awesomeness Vardhini and tell your boy that his cake looks as handsome as he