It’s came! It finally came! The recipe you’ve all been patiently waiting for (I’m looking at you, Later Levels). Since I had a little more time with this recipe I decided to experiment a bit and go a little different route than your traditional “carrot cake”. Most carrot cake, at least in the U.S. is more of a quick bread than a cake – it’s dense and crumby, though still good. Instead I combined a few different recipes I found and made a much more light, airy crumb texture, that had plenty of height and reminded me much more of an actual cake. But, by doing this, I made it a bit more complicated. So bear with me and let’s dig in!

Carrot Cake

Start by mixing together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, and most of the sugar. Put it in a bowl, use a whisk, and get it nice and evenly aerated and blended. Oh, and make sure you pull out the eggs. You’ll want them to sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before you whip them.

Grate the carrot using a fine grater. It’ll take about 4-5 large carrots to get enough for this cake. That seems like a lot, but can you imagine a better way to eat your veggies? I usually don’t peel my carrots. I feel like the skin has the potential for being good for you and is not, at the very least, not bad for you. And it saves you that extra few minutes in time and clean up. Win-win. And, because we aren’t using Endura carrots, anything that shortens the time is worth it. When the carrots are ready slightly squeeze handfulls of them over a sink to get a little of the juice out. This will help keep it from falling to the bottom of the pan and from letting the cake be too wet.

Now here comes the different part and the reason this isn’t an “easy” recipe. Add all the eggs to a bowl and whip on high, using a whisk or electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, until they start to get bubbly. Stop and add the rest of the sugar and all the oil, and continue whisking until the eggs get light in color, start to get fluffy, and can almost double in volume. This will take at least 5 minutes. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer like a KitchenAid you can do this while grating the carrots and save yourself even more time!

Once the eggs are ready slowly fold in the carrots. This mixture will be really thick and you’ll wonder why on earth we spent all that time whipping eggs, but trust me. It’s worth it. Slowly add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Butter a 10 inch round cake pan, making sure you get all the cracks and crannies. I prefer a springform pan because they are the easiest to get a cake out of. If you don’t use a springform you may have to flour the pan as well as butter it. Just throw in some flour after you grease it, shake it until the butter is covered, and dump out the excess. It’s pretty easy. Add the cake batter and stick it in the oven. The entire bake process is an adventure, like completing a shrine. Depending on the oven, the type of oven, how old your oven is, etc… your baking time will be different from someone else’s. But my oven bake time was about 45 minutes. Yours will be pretty close to this, but just watch starting around 40 minutes. Getting a perfectly domed cake is all about timing. Take the cake out to early (or even check on it too early) and the whole thing will collapse on you. Take the cake out late and it’ll be so dry you’ll regret eating it. So if you open the oven door to check on the cake and the center wobbles a bit close it quick and wait another 5-10 minutes before you even try again. A toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean when it’s ready!

While the cake is baking feel free to make some good, old fashioned cream cheese frosting. Make sure the butter and cream cheese is at room temperature and add them to a bowl with the vanilla (again, a stand mixer comes in really handy right about now). Beat them together until they are well combined. If you use a stand mixer make sure you scrape the bowl at this point with a spatula. Add the powdered sugar 2/3 cup at a time until it becomes spreadable. How much powdered sugar you add is really up to your taste preferences. I prefer a more sharp, tangy frosting (if I eat it at all) so I was good at 2 cups.

When the cake is done take it out of the oven and allow it to cool completely before frosting. I take the springform sides off after about 5 minutes so it doesn’t keep cooking. If you use a regular round cake pan take it out of the pan after 5-10 minutes and let it cool on a wire rack. This will prevent the bottom from getting soggy. No one wants a soggy bottom.

Make sure you wait until the cake has cooled completely before you frost. If you don’t the entire top layer will peel away into the frosting and become a big, giant mess. When cooled, frost and enjoy! Oh, and I don’t recommend garnishing with a raw carrot. But I won’t judge if you do…

Link’s Carrot Cake recipe:

Any Carrot Tabantha Wheat Cane Sugar Goat Butter

