Chef Melinda Foley's - Carrot Cake
Who knew carrots and cake could tastes so good together? This recipe is wonderful for the holidays and stays fresh for days. The cream cheese icing tastes great on top of this aromatic cake. This recipe was a suggestion for Florida Mom from a lot of my Jazzercise friends who have tried it. It may seem overwhelming, but remember, slow and steady wins the race!.CARROT CAKE
3 cups grated carrots (1 lb)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract (Pure Vanilla is best)
1 cup chopped nuts and/or raisins (optional)
CREAM CHEESE ICING
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 13X9 inch baking pan**, set aside. Peel carrots, chop off ends, grate FINELY ( this is done easiest with a vegetable grater attached to a Cusinart mixer, but a hand grater works fine. Thinly sliced carrots from the produce section at your grocer is not advisable to use). Sift flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder together and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs until well blended. Ådd sugar, oil and vanilla. Mix at medium speed until well blended. Add flour mixture and mix until blended. Do not over mix or cake will be tough. Using a sturdy spatula or spoon, stir in carrots and nuts/raisins (if using ) . Stirring by hand keeps the mixture from becoming over mixed AND, more importantly, it keeps the carrots, nuts/raisins from getting caught in the beater. Pour mixture into baking pan and bake on middle rack of oven for 55 minutes to 1 hour. When finished, the cake should slightly pull away from pan and spring back when touched. Check around 55 minutes. You can also insert a wooden skewer into the middle of the cake to test for doneness. If there is any batter left on the skewer when it is pulled out, continue to cook and check every 5-6 minutes until skewer comes out clean. Do not over bake. Let cool completely.
Cream Cheese Icing ***
In a large bowl, and with a beater attachment on your mixer, mix on a high speed the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract for about two minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Slowly, and on a low mixer speed, add the powdered sugar (so it doesn’t blow out of the bowl!) until all of the sugar has been added. Once incorporated, mix on a high speed until the icing almost doubles in size, about 5 minutes. Spread over completely cooled cake.
Yield: about 24 squares Prep time about 20 minutes. Baking time 1 hour.
*”room temperature” is considered sitting the product out of refrigeration for about 20-30 minutes
** two round 9” cake pans can be used. Line each pan with parchment paper and grease and flour the sides or the cake pans. You should have enough icing to place a thin layer between the two cakes.
*** Depending on how thick you ice the cake, you may have icing left over. You can use this on muffins, cookies, pound cake, etc. BE CREATIVE AND HAVE FUN!!