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The BEST Carrot Cake I’ve Ever Made!

Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-iii/

Using gneebeanie’s comments, Dec 8, 2006

Course Dessert
Keyword cake
Servings 12 servings

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 cups grated carrots
  • 8 oz can crushed pineapples drained
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 4 Tbsp ground flax seed optional
  • 4 Tbsp wheat germ optional
  • 4 Tbsp protein powder optional
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped optional

Frosting:

  • 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick) softened
  • 8 ounces cream cheese softened
  • 2 1/2- 3 cups confectioners' sugar *
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9" x 13" pan or two 9” round pans.

  2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Stir in carrots, applesauce and canned pineapple.

  3. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, flax seed, wheat germ and protein powder (if using the last 3 ingrediets). Fold in pecans if using and pour into prepared pan(s).

  4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes for rectangular cake, 25 to 30 mins for round layer cake, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Frosting

  1. In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

  2. Frost cake once completely cooled.

Recipe Notes

Notes:

The original frosting recipe called for 4 cups confectioners’ sugar – YIKES! The adapted recipe used 3 1⁄2 cups but I further reduced it to 2 1⁄2 - 3 cups to make a just perfectly sweet (for me) frosting. If you like it sweeter, add more sugar, but start with 2 1⁄2 cups and go from there.

This frosting makes enough to frost a 9" two-layer cake or just single layer 9"x13" cake.