So my wife had her birthday and was craving Carrot Cake. I decided to make her one in stead of buying something nasty at the local supermarket. We actually liked the cupcake version better, without frosting even.
Ingredients:
For Carrot Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lbs grated carrots
For Frosting:
1 pack brick style cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Carrot Cake
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray two 9-inch cake pans with non stick cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk oil, eggs, brown sugar, cane sugar, apple sauce and vanilla extract. Add the grated carrots and mix well.
Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.
Divide batter evenly between the 2 cake pans. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan and move to wire rack if possible.
For cupcakes
Use a cupcake tray pan unit, line them with paper cupcake liners.
Put 2 tbsp of the batter mix in each. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F until a toothpick comes out clean.
Frosting
Mix cream cheese and butter and keep mixing until smooth, if you don’t have a stand mixer, use a fork in a bowl. Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and keep on mixing until it’s a nice and smooth mix.
Assembly
Put a layer of frosting on one of the carrot cake layers (about 1/2 cup). Place other cake on top and repeat. Put the rest of the frosting to seal up the sides. Top with pecans or whatever you feel like.