Carrot Cake!

Carrot cake is my fiance's favorite dessert, so since we started dating I've made this recipe numerous times.  I especially like this recipe from Joy of Cooking because the cake itself uses oil, not butter, and I've made some adjustments to slightly decrease the amount of fat in the the cream cheese frosting without compromising its taste at all.

I like to make this for special occasions. On Valentine's day 2010 I bought red sugar sprinkles, cut a heart stencil out of paper and made it a V-day gift. Since I have the bottle of red sugar, I keep using it every time I make the cake, with a different design.

I made this cake on Saturday, in preparation for our run in the Georgia Publix Half-Marathon on Sunday morning. Hence the "13.1" decoration.

This is a very easy cake to make. I think the keys to its good flavor are toasted walnuts and freshly grated nutmeg (way more fresh and flavorful than pre-ground nutmeg):

The inside of ground nutmeg

Carrot Cake

Preheat oven to 350, butter and flour two 9x2" cake pans

1 and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar (or slightly less)

1.5 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup canola or light olive oil (in the past I have done 1/4 cup oil and the rest applesauce)

3 large eggs

1.5 cups grated peeled carrots

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Whisk together all the dry ingredients.

Whisk together oil and eggs then add to dry ingredients. Add carrots and walnuts.

Scrape batter into pans. Bake ~ 25 minutes. Invert onto cooling rack.

Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

The recipe calls for regular cream cheese and 5 Tbsp butter. I usually use 1/3-reduced fat cream cheese and 4 Tbsp butter.

In a food processor combine:

8 oz cream cheese (cold)

4 Tbsp unsalted butter (softened, at room temp) 

2 tsp vanilla

2 - 2.5 cups powdered sugar

Pulse until blended.