Carrot Cake for my Dad.

 My Dad's 73rd birthday was coming up. My parents belong to a camping club and my sister suggested we go surprise them on Saturday night at the potluck. Mom mentioned wanting to make Dad a Carrot Cake for his birthday, but because they were going up on Thursday she was afraid it wouldn't last. I decided to take this as a challenge and make a Carrot Cake from scratch!
My plan was to buy the frosting (I had never found a suitable homemade frosting recipe) but THIS one had a good looking recipe included so I gave it a go. BOY is it good.

If you do nothing-KEEP THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING RECIPE! You can use it for all your cake, cupcake, etc. baking!

LilyBelle could not wait to eat that cake!!! 

Carrot Cake Recipe

Start with carrots! I went ahead and shredded the 3 cups of carrots first and set it aside.

Looking over the recipe, I realized that Carrot Cake is similar to Banana Bread or Zucchini bread. It's a basic cake recipe with a vegetable thrown in that in the baking becomes sweet.

Mix the wet ingredients:

4 eggs

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Mix 

Mix together the wet and dry

Add the 3 cups of carrots and 1 cup of chopped pecans.

See how EASY that was??

I decided to make a layered cake. So pour 1/2 into each Springform pan.

Bake 40 to 45 mins in oven 350 degrees

Cool COMPLETELY

Now for the frosting-

(THIS is the recipe you need to keep!!!)

1/2 cup butter softened

8 oz Cream Cheese softened

4 cups of confectioners sugar (Powdered sugar)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Beat in mixer until smooth and creamy.

TA DA! Cream Cheese frosting! Good enough to rival anything in a can AND no lard!!

You could add color for decoration! I'll never buy frosting from a can again!

Place one cake on plate. Trim around to make it flat. (the kids do NOT mind eating the trimmings! lol)

I had my husband do the frosting. He has a better handle on this than I do. I always manage to tear the cake.  We decided to frost like the recipe photo-in between and on top.

Next time, I will suggest less frosting for the layers and go for an all over frost.

Sprinkle with Pecans!

My father and many campers reported that the cake was VERY good. In fact, my parents only had a few pieces left over to enjoy for themselves. 

Another dessert the pleases all!!