Yet another carrot cake

I made a carrot cake for my dad's birthday last month. I tried one made with applesauce substituted for some of the oil using this recipe. I made as instructed by the recipe except the baking time, 40 -50 minutes for a 9 in cake? Sound much too long to me. I ended up baking about 30 minutes but it still ended up being dry. I added lemon extract to the frosting instead of vanilla because I prefer the taste of lemon with carrot cake. The pecans I used may have been going bad according to my dad. They didn't expire until May but I don't like the taste of nuts so I can't tell if they have started going rancid. This recipe wasn't a keeper for me.

Carrot Spice Muffins

Thia is a Dorie Greenspan recipe. I've seen  her recipes all over the food blogs and since I had some carrots that needed to be used I decided to try this one  that I found on the blog Sidewalk Shoes. The texture was nice, more cake like than muffin and I didn't think it had enough flavor to stand alone without frosting. I did forget the nuts which would have made it better and I thought it could use more raisins. I don't think I'll make these again but they were okay.

The coconut carrot cake that wasn't...

I saw this recipe at A Southern Grace for carrot coconut cake. I love carrot cake and I love coconut cake and that picture looks great! I must make it, I thought. So on my next trip to the store I went armed with a list of ingredients, Cream of Coconut, not a problem it's right there in the liquor aisle. Coconut extract, that should be an easy find right? Wrong, there isn't even a place for it on the shelf. Seriously? Vanilla, almond even root beer extract but no coconut. That's okay I reasoned, I'm sure between the shredded coconut and the cream of coconut it will be good anyway.

I start to make the cake getting all my ingredients ready before hand. (something I don't usually do), the nuts are chopped and the carrots are shredded. Everything is going great. Except for peeling my thumb when I was peeling the carrots but if I took injuring myself in the kitchen as a sign, I would never cook again. Anyway, It's time to add the cream of coconut, I open the can to find a slightly brownish waxy looking layer when I dug a bit deeper a greasy looking syrup. Does anyone know what cream of coconut is supposed to look like? If that's what it normally looks like I think I'll be getting rid of any recipes with that in it. Anyway since everything else was mixed up and ready to go I just added extra oil and made it without the cream of coconut.

The flavor of the cake was lacking but the texture was okay. and since I couldn't make the frosting which is a shame because I think I wanted to try that more than the cake and I didn't have any cream cheese. I had to go next door and borrow a can of frosting. Maybe one day I'll try it again, but I would like to know if the cream of coconut was bad or if it was supposed to look that way.

Laurie's Amazing Carrot Cake

This cake turned out pretty well. I halved the cake recipe to make 2 9-in layers. Freezing made it easy to frost. I goofed and halved the frosting as well, I don't know if it was just a really good frosting recipe or if it was because I made less of it so it wasn't overwhelming but I loved the frosting.

I wasn't crazy about the ground nuts and raisins, I like whole raisins and I thought the ground nuts left a bitter taste in some bites. (maybe I should have toasted them?) I would try it again with a few changes.

Edit: I was looking at the frosting recipe again and realized I don't know what I thought a cube of butter meant, a stick or a couple of tablespoons? I also can't remember whether I used vanilla or lemon juice. I normally used vanilla but I liked this one better than normal so maybe I used the lemon juice?


Frosted very neatly.


Last piece... I kept forgetting to take pictures.

Laurie's Amazing Carrot Cake

3 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

8 eggs

1 Tablespoons salt

4 teaspoons soda

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons cloves, ground

6 cups grated carrots

2 cups chopped pecans

4 1/2 cups flour

2 cups raisins and / or 2 cups chopped fresh cranberries

Prepare pans:

2- 10 inch Spring form pans,

or

two- 9 inch round cake pans and two- 8 inch round cake pans.

Beat the eggs, oil and buttermilk together in a large bowl. Grind the pecans and raisins in a food processor with a metal blade. Pulse until chopped into very small pieces. Add all of the dry ingredients, including the nuts and raisins to the wet ingredients. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Pour into greased and floured pans, lined with parchment or wax paper. Only fill pans 3/4 full. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour if using 10 inch Spring form pans, about 45 minutes for round pans. Test with toothpick to see if done before removing from oven. After removing from oven, wrap each layer individually with saran wrap and place in freezer while still warm. Remove after cake is cooled and frozen, and apply one layer of frosting. Layer the cake on a platter. Return to freezer. Let cake refreeze until frosting is firm. Remove and frost outer sides and top of cake again. At this point you can either place back in freezer until ready to use, or let sit out to thaw. If making the cake in advance, cover when frosting is hardened and store in freezer. On day of serving, remove cake from freezer at least three hours before serving. You may decorate with lemon leaves around base of cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 cube butter, not margarine

8 oz. cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla (I used 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice instead)

pinch salt

about 6 cups powdered sugar

cream or milk to thin, about 3 tablespoons

Cream the butter and cream cheese. Add flavoring, salt and about 3 cups of powdered sugar. Mix well. Add rest of powdered sugar and milk or cream to desired consistency. Frost as directed. If you are making 4 layers, I 1/2 this recipe again so you will have enough to frost all four cakes. If making either 2 -10 inch spring form cakes, or just frosting 2- 9 inch cakes, and keeping the smaller 8 inch cakes in the freezer for later use, one batch of frosting is enough.