Friday, May 20, 2011

Easter Cakes: Part 3 - Carrot Cake




I LOVE this cake! Best carrot cake ever, no joke.  If you are familiar with the Silver Palate Cookbooks, it is no surprise that the very best of anything came right out of their books.  Everything in the Silver Palate Cookbooks has a touch of decadence that you just don't find in the classic recipe.  In typing out the recipe I realize I messed up a step, it calls for cooked pureed carrots, I used raw shredded carrots, still loved the cake so it seems you could do either.  The cream cheese icing recipe is a keeper, so smooth and creamy.  I think I want to try this recipe as muffins.  Yum!

Silver Palate Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shelled chopped walnuts - optional
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
1 1/3 cups pureed cooked carrots (I used raw shredded carrots)
3/4 cup (or 1 8oz can) crushed pineapple drained
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two 9 inch spring form pans (I used one spring form and one regular, the spring form cake was thicker)
  2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add oil, eggs and vanilla then beat well.  Fold in walnuts coconut, carrots and pineapple.
  3. Pour batter into prepared pans.  Bake for 50 minutes, until edges have pulled away and the center is set.
  4. Cool on cake rack for 3 hours.  Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese - room temp
6 tablespoons butter - room temp
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of 1/2 a lemon - optional
  1. Cream together cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl
  2. Slowly sift in confectioners' sugar adn continue beating until fully mixed.  
  3. Stir in vanilla and lemon.

Pineapple and coconut are what set this carrot cake apart from others.  What a colorful batter!


The recipe called for spring-form pans, I only had one so I used a standard 9" round cake pan for one layer.  The spring-form layer was thicker and easier to remove from pan, but the regular cake pan worked too.  

This is the best picture I got of the Carrot Cake iced.  I did not do any fancy icing, just coated it with the cream cheese icing.  I have to get better at taking after pictures.  

2 comments:

  1. Honestly, this cake you made is the best tasting carrot cake I've ever had! I'll definitely be making it in the future!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Janice! I can't wait to make muffins, maybe I could stuff them like the Gingerbread Construction Company. Yum!

    ReplyDelete