Hello my friends! Happy Spring! I made this carrot cake with cream cheese icing for Easter. It was a huge hit with the family. I know I may be a bit late for Easter but Mother’s day is just around the corner and I am pretty sure carrot cake fans would absolutely adore every bite of this delicious and moist carrot cake with cream cheese icing.
Save RecipeIngredients
- 2 cups of carrots, grated
- 1 cup of applesauce
- 3 eggs,room temperature, beaten
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups of flour
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cardamon
- pinch of salt
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz plain cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups of icing sugar
- 1/2 cup finely crushed walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- lightly grease an 8 x 11 inch pan.
- In a large bowl ,combine carrots, apple sauce, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Stir with a spatula until combined but do not over mix.
- Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 25- 30 minutes until golden brown. Check for doneness with a tooth pick.
- Allow cake to fully COOL on a rack before icing.
- Cream cheese icing:
- In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. add vanilla and beat again. Add powder sugar and whip until combined.
- Frost cake and decorate with crushed walnuts.
I love carrot cake, it’s my all time favorite. I usually make it for my mother in laws birthday but always felt there was something missing, either it was slightly dry or not enough spice. I finally nailed it. I added apple sauce for extra moisture, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamon. This carrot cake is moist and perfectly spiced. I opted for a light cream cheese icing which was super easy to make. Because I was making this for a large crowd, I opted to bake the cake in a sheet pan, bonus, it was much easier to ice. But if your looking to make something fancier I would use a bundt cake pan or round pans. Really you can’t go wrong either way, it comes down to taste. Everyone was raving about it.
My mom puts walnuts in her carrot cake, I opted to leave them out. Instead, I crushed them and put them on top of the icing. I have seen so many different versions. Broma bakery adds pineapple to her carrot cake while Camille styles adds orange zest. Both sound delicious.
Enjoy!
