Carrot Cake
- 18
- 30 minutes
- 40 minutes
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups grated carrots
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- Frosting:
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Directions
- Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan.
- Beat sugar, oil, eggs, and 2 teaspoons vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined.
- Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans.
- Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
- To make the frosting: Beat butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
- Stir in chopped pecans.
- Dink’s Notes: After reading through 4-5 pages of the reviews, I consolidated the most referred alterations to this recipe to: 1) using 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup white sugar 2) adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract 3) adding 1 8oz. can of crushed pineapple (I squeezed out most of the juice before adding it, I didn’t want any extra fluids in the cake) 4) Added 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg 5) added 1 extra teaspoon of cinnamon 6) used 3/4 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup applesauce. The result came out incredibly delicious - the cake was very flavorful and moist. For the frosting, I only used 3.5 cups of powdered sugar, and it was more than sweet enough, with a nicely balanced cream cheese vs. sweet flavor. If I would change anything again, I would use less pecans - it’s a bit too nutty for my personal tastes. Also, I followed another reviewer’s suggestion of grating the carrots with the large grater side (the one you use for cheese) so that you don’t end up with a bunch of carrot mush and juice that can’t be used. Will definitely make again!
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