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Old Fashioned Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

When in doubt, go with the classics, right?   For the dessert portion of our Easter meal, I chose this gorgeous carrot cake.   Sadly, my food processor went to appliance heaven a while back, and the thought of hand grating carrots wasn't putting me in a festive mood.    Then I remembered that I had a Salad Shooter stashed away in the basement, anyone else remember those?   It made super short work of those carrots! I made no changes to the cake recipe itself.  For the frosting, I used whole milk, omitted walnuts, and used 8oz of cream cheese.   Though I"m not the best decorator, I piped on the carrots and stems.

Carrot cake Easter dessert
I loved this cake.  It had such great texture and flavor on its own, then that cream cheese frosting.   My son isn't a huge cream cheese fan, but he ate all the cake and most of the frosting and gave it a thumbs up.    My husband?  He said it was good, but he doesn't really think of carrot cake as dessert...  Vegetables and cream cheese make him think of breakfast.   We've been married over 15 years and I had no clue he didn't like carrot cake.  Oops!  Thanks so much to Kim O for her wonderful recipe!

carrot cake easter dessert

This week, thirteen bloggers are sharing 46 recipes and tips to help you serve up deliciousness this Easter. Follow #EasterRecipes on social media to see what we're serving up!

Old Fashioned Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Old Fashioned Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: 16
Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal

Ingredients

  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 to 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 2 cups grated carrots
FROSTING:
  • 1/2 cup butter -- softened
  • 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons whole milk
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts -- optional- omitted
  • Orange and green food coloring -- optional

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar and oil. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; beat into egg mixture. Stir in carrots.
  2. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
  3. For frosting, in another large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Add enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency. Reserve 1/2 cup frosting for decorating if desired. If desired, stir walnuts into remaining frosting.
  4. Spread frosting between layers and over top and sides of cake. If decorating the cake, tint 1/4 cup reserved frosting orange and 1/4 cup green. Cut a small hole in the corner of pastry or plastic bag; insert #7 round pastry tip. Fill the bag with orange frosting. Pipe twelve carrots on top of cake, so each slice will have a carrot. Using #67 leaf pastry tip and the green frosting, pipe a leaf at the top of each carrot.
  5. Store cake in the refrigerator. Yield: 16 servings.

Easter Recipes 

Friday

In case you missed them, here’s all the #EasterRecipes to date:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday



Comments

  1. I've never quite understood the carrot cake for Easter thing (It's not one we follow in the UK), but I do love a good carrot cake so will take the excuse. Looks great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bunnies eat carrots= Easter Bunny? No clue, but I'm definitely not waiting til next Easter to make it again!

      Delete
  2. We love carrot cake. Love the menus too!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I should have driven some up to you! This has been a great week of food, my printer has been going nonstop :)

      Delete
  3. I love carrot cake any time of day... and I could definitely subscribe to the carrot cake as breakfast train of thought! Even if that's not what he meant exactly, that's how I'm going to take it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Breakfast, lunch, dessert, midnight snack- I'm down for cake anytime!

      Delete
  4. Carrot cake is one of my favorites and this version sounds amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's one of those things that always seem to fly under my radar. Not now. I've printed the recipe and put it in the front of my Tried & True Family Favorites binder.

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  5. I am on board fully with carrot cake for breakfast. Any time really :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like how you think- some "afternoon snack" carrot cake is sounding very good right now!

      Delete
  6. Carrot cake is my husband's favorite. I know he would love this one! Cute decorations too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think your decorations turned out lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yum! This looks so delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a pretty carrot cake! I could go for a slice now! Thanks for sharing with Celebrate365!

    ReplyDelete

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