Friday, December 18, 2009

carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Ingredients

For the Cake:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 lb. carrots, peeled and grated (definitely use your food processor to quickly grate)
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

For the Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp. sour cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9 x 13-inch cake pan with vegetable oil spray.
2. Whisk all the dry cake ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
3. Whisk the eggs and sugars together in a large bowl (I use my stand mixer for this part) until frothy and the sugar is mostly dissolved, about 1 minute. While whisking, slowly add the oil until the mixture is thoroughly combined and emulsified, about 1 minute. Whisk in the flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the carrots and walnuts.
4. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached, 35-40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
5. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours.
6. Process the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla in a food processor until combined, about 5 seconds. Add the confectioners' sugar and continue to process until smooth, about 10 seconds, scraping down the bowl and blades as needed.
7. Frost the cake and eat! I like to decorate the sides of the cake with coconut, but you could use chopped walnuts too.

* from America's Test Kitchen

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