Carrot cake is an old birthday or wedding favorite.
Ingredients
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups corn oil (or canola)
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups shelled walnuts, chopped
- 1 ½ cups shredded coconut
- 1 1/3 cups grated cooked carrots (I microwave until tender)
- 3/4 cup drained crushed pineapple
- cream cheese frosting
- confectioners’ sugar, for dusting top
Preperation
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9-inch springform pans. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon into a bowl. Add oil, eggs and vanilla and beat well. Fold in walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple. Divide batter between prepared pans and smooth tops with a rubber spatula. Bake on the middle rack of the oven until edges have pulled away from sides and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean (about 50 minutes). Cool 15 minutes, then remove sides of pans and place layers still on pan bottoms on cake racks to cool completely (allow 3 hours). Gently remove layers from pan bottoms and use cream cheese frosting to fill cake and frost the sides. Dust top of cake with confectioners’ sugar. Serves 10 to 12.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar (can use more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- juice of ½ lemon
Preperation
Cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Slowly sift in the confectioners’ sugar and continue beating until fully incorporated. The mixture should be free of lumps. Stir in the vanilla, and lemon juice if desired.