There are not many people whom I would cut my hand on a cheese grater for. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of non-family members I would do that for. This girl is one of them. Sometimes I call her "boo".
I offered to make a carrot cake for her birthday. I also decided to make it a layer cake. Can you believe that I've never made a layer cake before? You know, with two layers of cake and frosting in the middle? Nope, up until this point, I'd only ever made sheet cakes or cupcakes. "How hard can it be?", I asked myself.
The answer, is not that hard. Except for the grating of carrots. That part stinks. But other than that, this cake is mad easy to make. I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe after searching around. This recipe looked very simple and delicious, and I love the fact that the frosting has pecans in it.
Here it is!
For the Carrot Cake:
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 whole eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2ish cups grated carrots (I used 5 medium-sized carrots, which is a bit more than 2 cups)
For grating the carrots, I like to use the sort-of small side on the box grater. This will allow the carrot shreds to blend in better and contribute to a homogeneous flavor of the cake, instead of having big chunks of carrots that really stick out. And while you're grating, try not to cut your finger.
Mix together the sugar,
oil and eggs in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl whisk together flour,
salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Add to first mixture and
combine. Then add carrots and mix well. Grease and flour your chosen pan(s),
and pour your cake mixture into your pan(s).
Bake temp: 350°F
Bake time: For 2 9" round pans, I baked for about 35 minutes. Ree from PW says that depending on the size of your pan, you can bake as little as 25 minutes and as many as 50. The way to know when it's done is to give your pan a shimmy-shake and if it wiggles, it's not done.
When the cakes are done baking, remove them from the oven and let cool completely. If you're making a layer cake, once it's done, you have to level it so you have an even surface to work with. (I've been told, however, that my Great-Grammy Sheehan never used to do this, she would just fill in the hole with frosting.) You can decide what you want to do. I chose to level.
The bonus of this method is that then you have a whole bunch of cake to "sample".
Then you have to make your frosting. For a layer cake, Ree recommends doubling the recipe for frosting. I found this to be a bit much, and in the future would probably just 1.5 it.
Pecan Cream Cheese Frosting recipe:
1 package cream cheese (8oz) - softened to room temperature
1 stick butter - softened to room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb powdered sugar
3/4 cup chopped (really small) pecans
In your mixer, mix together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Add in the powdered sugar in two parts. Let your mixer do all the work, and combine all the ingredients until the frosting is smooth. Then add in your pecans.
Then the fun part. Line your cake plate (or whatever you're going to serve your cake on) with wax paper around the edge. Plop your first cake layer down in the middle, and throw some frosting on there. Using an off-set spatula, spread the frosting around to the edge. It's okay if you go over a bit. Encouraged, in fact.
Then put your second layer on top of that. Continuing to use your off-set spatula, spread frosting around the top and edges of your cake.
When you're done, slide the wax paper out from underneath your cake, and admire your work!
If you have a pretty cake plate with a cover, like I do, you can put the cover on. Then figure out how to transport your cake in it's fancy dish. Hmmmm....
