Carrot Cake

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If you’re the kind of person that revels in the joy of grating carrots (God bless you), by all means, ignore this post and do what makes you happy! If, however, you’re like me and have to squeeze baking a cake somewhere into your day after working a full-time job, making dinner, taking care of your child, spending time with family, etc….then keep reading, because you can whip this absolutely delicious Carrot Cake up in a couple of minutes, using a single bowl and have it baking in the oven while you tend to your other daily duties.

Before we get into the ingredients, I’d like to draw your attention to the show-stopping secret key to making this carrot cake both hassle free and incredibly moist. Drumroll please…it’s BABY FOOD! That’s right! Why waste your time finely grating carrots, stewing or pureeing them, when Gerber has done all the work for you? Plus, if you’re like me, you could love carrots and still greatly dislike strands of them floating in your cake! Amiright?

Okay, now that I filled you in on my little secret, let’s discuss the rest of the ingredients you’re going to need to make the cake. This recipe uses flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, Himalayan pink salt, vanilla extract, eggs, vegetable oil, and of course, carrot baby food. I know many carrot cake recipes call for pecans and/or raisins to be added in as well, but I’m not a huge fan of either in my cakes, so omit them in this recipe.

For the frosting, you are going to need butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract.

Cake: To make this Carrot Cake, begin by preheating your oven to 350ºF. Then, prepare three (8-inch) cake pans by greasing the sides and placing parchment paper rounds in the bottoms; set aside.

Next, in a large bowl, combine your flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, vanilla extract, eggs, vegetable oil and carrot baby food. With your hand mixer, beat on high until all ingredients are fully combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a silicone scraper to make sure all ingredients are completely incorporated. Divide your batter evenly into your prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Transfer your cakes to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting: While your cakes are cooling, make your frosting. To do this, add your butter to a large bowl. Using your electric hand mixer, beat your butter until just creamy. Add in your cream cheese and beat until just combined. It is important to beat your cream cheese only until it is just combined with your butter. Beating it too long will cause your frosting to become too soft and therefore it will melt off your cake when you try to frost it (adding extra confectioners’ sugar after the cream cheese is too soft will only make the frosting softer). Mix in your vanilla, then add your confectioners’ sugar. Beat on high until your confectioners’ sugar is fully combined. DO NOT OVERMIX. Please be advised, that you will need to set your will-power on high as soon as your frosting is prepared, so that you do not eat the entire bowl of this frosting…yes…it is that good!

To Assemble the Cake: These cakes bake up fairly level, so you most likely will not have to remove a dome, but if a small dome forms on any of your layers, use a serrated knife to remove it so that all your cake layers are completely flat. Place your first layer down on your cake pedestal or cardboard cake round. Pipe a dam of frosting around the outer edge of your cake. Fill that dam with about ¾ cup of frosting and spread it evenly over your cake until it meets your frosting dam.

Place your next layer of cake on top of the frosting. Pipe a dam of frosting around the outer edge of your cake. Fill that dam with about ¾ cup of frosting and spread it evenly over your cake until it meets your frosting dam.

Repeat the previous steps for your final layer of cake. Frost your entire cake with a thin crumb coat. Refrigerate for 1-3 hours before putting your final coat of frosting on (this will allow your cake to firm up a bit so the layers aren’t floating back and forth on top of the frosting between the layers).

Once firm, remove from the refrigerator, put your final coat of frosting all over the entirety of your cake, smoothing it out with a cake scraper. You can leave your cake plain, or decorate it to your liking. You can see in the pictures, that I decorated mine with some extra Cream Cheese Frosting around the top edge and then piped a bunch of mini carrots in the center with some of my Buttercream Frosting. I would not suggest using this cream cheese frosting for any carrot decorations, as manipulating it after adding food coloring will make it extremely soft. To make the orange color you see on my carrots in the pictures, I mixed a couple of drops of brown food coloring with several drops of orange (you can play around with the colors until you achieve your desired hue). To make the green color, I did the same thing…added a couple of drops of brown food coloring with several drops of green. I think the brown gave the carrots a rustic appeal, which is what I was going for.

When your cake is completed. make sure to store it covered in the refrigerator for the best results! I hope you and your family love this Carrot Cake as much as I do!