My Daughter’s Favorite Carrot Cake

I made this carrot cake for my daughter’s birthday. Her neighbor made her a cake a while back and my daughter loved it so much that she asked her for the recipe. She put the recipe on the side of her refrigerator but never made it. I asked my granddaughter to take a picture of the recipe and send it to me.

I cut a piece from the cake just so you could see what the inside looked like. It was so moist and the cream cheese frosting was delicious too. I put the piece back into the cake and spread the frosting so you couldn’t even tell by looking at it, see what I do for my followers.

Spray the bottom of the pans with cooking oil. Cut oven safe parchment paper and place it on the bottom of whatever size cake pan you use.

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients with a whisk.

In a large bowl beat on low speed the oil, vanilla and eggs until combined.

Add the dry ingredients (1/3 at a time) with the egg mixture and beat on low just until combined.

Add the shredded carrots and optional pineapple, raisins or nuts. (I only added the optional pineapple)

With a large spoon or spatula, fold in the carrots (and optional ingredients) to the batter to combine.

Pour the batter into prepared pan(s).

Bake in a preheated 350º oven. For two 9” round pans bake 30-35 minutes, two 8” pans for 35-40 minutes or an 9” x 13” pan for 35-40 minutes. For all sizes, they are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack.

MAKE THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING: In a large bowl add the softened cream cheese, softened butter and vanilla extract. Beat with a mixer on low speed until combined.

Add one cup of powdered sugar, mix on low speed until combined. Add 1 Tbsp of the liquid and mix. Repeat until powdered sugar is gone. If the consistency is too stiff, end with more milk. If it is too wet add a little powdered sugar. Taste after you mix each time and make sure it is sweet enough. My daughter likes it sweet so I used four cups of the powdered sugar, if you don’t like it as sweet, you may not want the full four cups, adjust to your own taste.

Frost the cake, if you added nuts to the cake, you can sprinkle more nuts on the top of the frosting if you want.

Then serve.