National Carrot Cake Day

Crisp carrots is one of my favorite snacks. One of my other favorite snacks is cake. Naturally combining the two is one of the greatest treats of all time, and no better excuse to make a tasty carrot cake than on National Carrot Cake Day!​

Normally, carrot cake is filled with Walnuts, raisins and carrots... I decided to make mine a little bit differently. By swapping out walnuts and raisins for pecans and cranberries this isn't like the carrot cake you find at your local bakery.

xx,

Shi

Carrot Cake

Makes 2 8 inch rounds or 1 jelly roll pan

CAKE

Ingredients

2 c. Carrots grated

2/3 c. Flour

1 tsp. Baking powder

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Ginger

1/2 tsp. Nutmeg

1/2 tsp. Salt

4 Eggs

1/2 c. Granulated sugar

1/4 c. Brown sugar lightly packed

1/2 c. Butter browned

1/2 c. Vegetable oil

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Zest of 1 Orange

1 tbs. flour

1/3 c. Pecans toasted

1/3 c. Cranberries

1/3 c. Chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and line baking molds with parchment paper.

To make brown butter start by melting the stick of butter in a pan. As it melts the butter will pop and sizzle until the water in the butter evaporates. Once the popping and sizzling stops watch carefully as the butter starts to deepen in color. Remove it from the heat once it reaches a nice golden brown color and let it cool. There will be milk solids left over in the butter, you can choose to strain them out if you like but I always love the slightly sweet and nutty quality it adds. If you're low on time or butter, you can subsititute 1/3 c. vegetable oil.

To make the CAKE:

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the brown butter, oil, vanilla and zest. Mix the pecans, cranberries and chocolate chips with the flour until everything is evenly coated. In a separate bowl with a whisk or a stand mixer with a paddle mix eggs and both sugars together. Once the eggs and sugars are all combined slowly add the butter/oil mixture.

In two additions add the dry ingredients. Lastly fold in the carrots before folding in the pecans, cranberries and chocolate chips.

Pour batter evenly in cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes. If baking in a tray bake for 15 minutes rotating halfway through the baking process. To check if the cakes are fully baked insert a toothpick, it will come out clean when the cakes are completely done. Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before transferring the cakes onto a cooling rack.

I baked my cake in a half sheet tray lined with parchment and then used a 4 inch and a 2 inch cookie cutter to cut rounds of cake to make mini cakes.

FROSTING

Ingredients

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1 c. Butter

1 1/2 c. Powder sugar

1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract

To make the FROSTING:

Using a hand mixer, or a stand mixer with a paddle mix the cream cheese and butter together with the vanilla extract until fluffy.

Slowly add in the powdered sugar until fully comined.

CANDIED CARROTS

If you have some extra carrots, use a peeler to shave them into thin strips. Combine 1 c. sugar with 1 c. water and boil in a pot. Add the carrots and reduce the heat to medium low. Let the carrots simmer until they turn translucent. If the syrup starts getting too thick add a little more water until the carrots turn translucent. Drain the carrots and use immediately to top frosted cakes.

FROST the CAKE!

Once the cake has cooled, make sure each layer is level before frosting the cake. Be sure to have some fun with the frosting!