Just before Easter, it was my turn to choose our next Twitterbake recipe from Bake!, and I quickly decided on carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. We were having family over for Easter dinner, and this seemed like a perfect, Springy dessert to have along with blueberry crumble pie and strawberry Chantilly cake.
The cake was very easy to mix up. After whisking the dry ingredients in a bowl, I mixed brown sugar, eggs, and oil in another bowl, then stirred in the dry ingredients, shredded carrots, and chopped pecans. I scraped the batter into two 9-inch cake pans and baked the cakes for 45 minutes at 375°F.
After cooling the cake layers in the pans for about 5 minutes, I removed them from the pans and let them cool completely. When the cake was cool, I mixed up the cream cheese frosting, which consisted of cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. The frosting seemed a bit too liquidy to me, and when I frosted the cake, it was clear that it should have been a bit thicker.
OK, so it wasn’t a picture-perfect cake, but it was perfectly delicious. A number of my baking friends swear by Dorie Greenspan’s carrot cake recipe from Baking: From My Kitchen to Yours. I’ve never made Dorie’s recipe, but I do have that book.
Having had Nick’s wonderful carrot cake, I need to try Dorie’s recipe. For scientific comparison purposes, of course.
Bake! – Best & Easiest Carrot Cake | Family & Food & Other Things said,
May 10, 2011 at 4:03 pm
[...] was the Best & Easiest Carrot Cake. Phyl picked this recipe, you can find his take on this cake here. I am still not sure what to think about this cake: yes, it was very easy, but is it the best [...]
Margaret said,
May 5, 2011 at 12:25 am
Love carrot cake. Need to try this one as have done Dorie’s several times. Just for scientific comparison’s sake!! LOL
gaaarp said,
May 5, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Science better appreciate all we do for it!
Kayte said,
May 4, 2011 at 9:10 pm
I haven’t made Dorie’s either as it was right before I joined the group. Maybe we should have a Dorie Carrot Cake recipe week and make it to compare. We liked NM’s a lot and my frosting turned out great…not sure what the difference was as you are right, yours looks thinner than mine. Question: those things you have around your cake pans…why do you use those? Just curious. Your cake looks delicious.
gaaarp said,
May 4, 2011 at 9:29 pm
They make the cake bake evenly without doming on the top.
Dorie carrot cake week sounds great. I’d love to compare them. I have issues with frosting. It’s too thin, so I add more powdered sugar. Then it’s too thick, so I add more milk. And on and on until I have a gallon of frosting. This time, I just followed the recipe and figured it might thicken up as it sat.