Carrot cake is a dense cake that resembles a loaf of bread. Grated carrots are added to cake and is spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spices. It is served with or without frosting and common frosting for carrot cake is cream cheese frosting. Carrot cake cream cheese frosting is a classic cake to bake for the holidays; either for Thanksgiving or during Christmas.

This Thanksgiving, I roasted a chicken, made some vegetable noodles and carrot cake cream cheese frosting for dessert. I usually do a Thanksgiving lunch and this was my menu this year. It was a gloomy day and could not take decent pictures. My iPhone photos were better than my DSLR pictures as it was dark near the dining area.

A photo posted by Usha Rao (@usha_myspicykitchen) on Nov 24, 2016 at 2:17pm PST

For the sake of blog photos, I baked the cake again the following weekend. This time I made half the recipe and baked it in a mini loaf pan. That day I also made vegan penne pasta and the plan was to frost the cake after it cools and take photos of the cake after lunch. By then Mr U asked me twice if he could eat the cake. I gave up and gave him couple of slices and since I already cut the loaf, I cut another slice for myself. Before we realized, we ate almost all of the cake and what you see in the photos is what was left, rather what I kept aside for photos, not wanting to baking this carrot cake again for the third time.

The moral of the incident for a food blogger is, not to feed anyone a yummy cake until you take photos for the blog, unless you are prepared to bake the cake again! With so many bakes yet to bake for the this month’s bake-a-thon, I was not going to bake the cake for the third time, though this is an easy bake! I took some pictures with whatever was left.

The first time I baked the cake, I was hesitant and unsure if Mr U would like the spices that went into the cake and not just him, I was a bit skeptical if I would finish the full loaf. I used less spices than the recipe called for and it was a perfect blend of spices and sweet. And the second time, the mini loaf vanished in matter of minutes!! Mirielle, thanks for those cute little sprinkles.

Source: Sweet & Simple Bakes
Total Time: 90 – 95 minutes
Preparation: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 75 – 80 minutes
Yields: 1 (8 ½” x 5”) Loaf

Ingredients:

Cake

• 180 grams (6 ½ oz) Self Raising Flour
• ½ tsp. Baking Soda
• ⅛ tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon Powder (I used ⅓ tsp.)
• ½ tsp. Nutmeg Powder or freshly grated Nutmeg (I used ¼ tsp.)
• ½ tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 2 Eggs
• 150 ml Vegetable Oil
• 200 grams Brown Sugar (I used both dark and light brown sugar)
• 300 grams (11 oz) Carrots, grated
• 100 grams Raisins
• 75 grams Walnut, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 75 grams Cream Cheese
• 75 grams Butter, softened
• 125 grams Confectioner’s Sugar or Icing Sugar
• ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract

Decoration

• Walnuts or Sprinkle

Preparation:

• Cake – Grease a 9” loaf pan with oil and line it with a parchment paper. I used a 8 ½” loaf pan.
• Grate carrots and keep aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Sift or whisk all the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside.
• In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs.
• Add oil, brown sugar grated carrots, raisins, walnuts to eggs and stir.
• Add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and bring the batter together together stirring with a wooden spoon. I tried using a whisk and had to switch to a wooden spoon as the batter is very thick and dense.
• Transfer it to the greased pan, smooth the top and bake in a preheated oven for 1 – 1 ¼ hour or until a skewer or a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. I baked for 1 hour 20 minutes.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack until completely cool.
• Cream Cheese Frosting – Beat cream cheese and butter in a bowl until combined.
• Add vanilla extract, confectioner’s sugar and beat until combined.
• Decorating – Once the cake is completely cool, spread the frosting on the cake using a butter knife or a palette knife. Add sprinkles or walnuts on top of the frosting.
• Slice the cake and serve.
• Store the leftovers in a cool place. I put it in the refrigerator.

Note:

• For ½ the recipe, use a mini loaf pan and bake for 58 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• Temperatures vary from oven to oven. Keep an eye on the cake in 5 minutes before the bake time is up.
• Self Raising Flour – If you don’t have self raising flour, came some at home. For 100 grams (4 oz) of all purpose flour, add 1 tsp of baking powder. Sift it together or whisk well before using homemade self raising flour.

This day in 2014: Spicy Petite Popovers

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#71

This is also part of the Bake-a-thon 2016

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