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Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

November 30, 2008 by Nicole 63 Comments

Today is my birthday and my husband, who has never baked a cake on his own, baked me a carrot cake completely from scratch!

When we were in Madera for Thanksgiving, I rummaged through my aunt’s recipe cards and found a few more of my mom’s recipes that I didn’t have.  One of the recipes was for a carrot cake that I remember eating when I was young.  I love carrot cake so I was thrilled to have a new (old) recipe to try!

When Justin surprised me by asking what kind of cake I wanted today, I first requested a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, a classic combination that I’ve always loved.  But at the last minute, I remembered my newly acquired carrot cake recipe and asked if he would be willing to give that a try instead.

I have to say that I’m pretty impressed.  Not only did he find all the ingredients on his own, he did absolutely everything without my help.  My only assigned tasks were carrot grating and pan greasing.  My husband normally does nothing in the kitchen besides making the occasional sandwich, so this new baking development is a rather nice surprise!

I have had a great birthday!  We went out to lunch and then I spent the afternoon shopping with birthday money and gift certificates.  I’ve been receiving birthday cards, phone calls, e-mails, text messages, as well as facebook and twitter greetings all day long.  Birthdays are so much fun in this digital age!  Thanks, everyone!

In addition to my birthday, today is the last day of November and therefore this is my last post for NaBloPoMo.  I shared a recipe with you every day this month (with the exception of Thanksgiving) and I’m finishing it off by sharing my mom’s carrot cake recipe, complete with cream cheese frosting!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Carrot Cake

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrot (about 4 medium/large carrots)
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans.

In a large bowl, sift together first six ingredients.  Stir in oil then stir in eggs, one a time.  Add carrots and stir until well blended then add nuts.  Divide batter between two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans and bake in preheated oven, 30-35 minutes for the 8-inch pans or 35-45 minutes for the 9-inch pans.  Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted the center comes out clean.  Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for ten minutes, then remove cakes from pans and let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Edit 12/01/08: We decided that the cream cheese frosting from my mom’s recipe was way too sweet so I’ve removed it and am sharing another cream cheese frosting recipe that allows more of the cream cheese flavor to come through.  Hope you enjoy it!

2 8-oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar and blend until well combined.  Blend in vanilla extract.  Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.  If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting is at room temp, beat with mixer til smooth).

Filed Under: Adventures in Baking, Desserts, Herbs and Spices, NaBloPoMo Tagged With: cake, carrot, carrot cake, dessert, NaBloPoMo, recipe

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rebecca says

    February 9, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    Yummy!!!! ... really liked carrot cakes especially when it's made from freshly grated carrots. I love cake, made of 3 layers of carrot cake and it's filled and frosted with cream cheese.
    Reply
  2. Jeana says

    February 21, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    I just made this cake and icing... and it was my first time making them both from scratch! Both are AMAZING. I should have let them cool a little bit longer before I iced them... but I was wanting to try it!! :D Thanks for sharing your birthday cake with us!
    Reply
  3. Jeana says

    February 23, 2009 at 6:57 am

    Ok, I'm back. I served this cake to many friends this weekend, and they all LOVED it. One friend from Southern Alabama carefully whispered to me, "This is better than my grandmother's prized carrot cake." I made some people very happy this weekend. Thanks again.
    Reply
  4. derf says

    May 31, 2009 at 9:07 am

    amazing cake recipes on this site: http://wheretogoandwhattodo.blogspot.com luscious coconut to die for white layer cake
    Reply
  5. Berlin says

    July 3, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Hello! I don't know if you mistyped your recipe ingredients or what, but I made this cake with the given amount of sugar and it turned into a sugar mess. I even tried to add more flour, but to no avail. While in search of an explanation for this sugar mess, all of the other recipes I came across called for 1 1/4 cups of sugar tops.
    Reply
  6. Nicole says

    July 3, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    Hi Berlin, sorry you had problems with the cake. I double checked the original recipe card and the ingredient amounts are correct. It's an old recipe and has more sugar and oil than most recipes you'll find today. I only posted it because it's the recipe my husband made for my birthday...it's not a recipe I developed myself. But some of the other commenters made the cake following the recipe and said it turned out well. I'm really sorry it didn't work out for you!!
    Reply
  7. Berlin says

    July 4, 2009 at 2:04 am

    It's okay! It's just upsetting to waste all those nuts (they're so expensive.) I still don't know what went wrong other than there was too much sugar. I never made carrot cake before so maybe I'm just not used to the consistency. It didn't cook all the way through though. Thanks for your speedy reply. No worries :]
    Reply
  8. Chef Karen Santana says

    August 28, 2009 at 9:25 am

    This cake is amazing! I tried your recipe (just added some rum, for a 'je ne se qua' touch) and I loved it!
    Reply
  9. sugarpluuum says

    February 22, 2010 at 8:03 am

    this is the best and the only carrot cake i will only eat!! thanks for sharing!! *HUG!*
    Reply
  10. Zsuzsi says

    February 28, 2010 at 1:38 pm

    Greetings from Hungary! I just made this wonderful cake (http://hangulatpresszo.blogspot.com/2010/02/repatorta-sajtkremmel.html), it's such a hit, my family is totally amazed!
    Reply
  11. darcus says

    March 14, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    i actually made it it was delicous i loved it alot thanks for the recipe
    Reply
  12. Kaitlin says

    March 18, 2010 at 10:08 pm

    I'm not quite sure what the problem is with this, but I have made it twice and both times it takes well over an hour to bake at 350 degrees...
    Reply
  13. Kausambi says

    June 26, 2010 at 4:57 am

    Great recipe, great blog and great pics.. :) I am so enamored by the picture of that slice of carrot cake with cream cheese on it that I am trying it out just as we speak (the cake is already baking away in my oven!) Have tweaked it just a little bit... Will let you know how it turns out soon... (http://coloredgrains.wordpress.com)
    Reply
  14. Katrina says

    September 11, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    Something wrong with this recipe... I'm really good at following recipes, exactly, and this one was by far the worst recipe I've ever made. I used it to make cupcakes, and one small cake. Neither of them rose, just sunk in the middle :/... I baked them as long as the recipe called for... Only good thing I got from this was, the tops of the cupcakes became really crunchy and turned out being a really good cookie :)
    Reply
  15. irene says

    October 1, 2010 at 6:23 am

    After a very long day of activities, at 8:45 pm.,my 12 yr old dtr. Kate says she is going to make a carrot cake from the internet.... We watch her hand grate carrots, etc. and in a short while, we are eating the fluffiest, most delicious cake. The recipe is very good. thank you.
    Reply
  16. Jill says

    October 5, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    I just like everything u bake!
    Reply
  17. Pearly says

    January 6, 2013 at 2:35 am

    Was looking for a nice cream cheese frosting recipe and chanced upon this. Absolutely fabulous. I will try the carrot cake next! Thank you for sharing.
    Reply
  18. Mahalia says

    March 12, 2013 at 9:10 pm

    What kind of nuts were used in the pictures above?
    Reply
  19. Teresina says

    November 21, 2014 at 6:05 pm

    Yum, yum, yum! And soooo easy!
    Reply
  20. Sheila says

    April 9, 2015 at 9:07 pm

    Greetings from Malaysia! First of all, a big "Thank You"... tis is One hell of a cake !!! I baked it few days ago, n I must say WE ALL LUVED IT SOOOO VERY MCH! Carrot cake is one of my fav cake n I just luv tis recipe.. its so really easy n made my 10 yr old daughter to say "im so proud of u mom".. thnks again!
    Reply
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