How Do You Make Carrot Cake

Time: 1 hr 30 minutes, plus at to the lowest degree 15 minutes' refrigeration
Rating: 5 (5105)
Notes: Read community notes

You've got enough frosting to fill the layers and embrace the sides and top of the cake, but Dorie Greenspan covers each layer generously, so generously that when the next layer goes on the frosting ripples out effectually the edges. Then simply swirl the frosting over the top, leaving the sides bare.

Featured in: The Baker's Apprentice: Carrot Block

Ingredients

For the Cake

ii cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons basis cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
three cups grated carrots (you tin can grate the carrots in a food processor fitted with a shredding blade)
i loving cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
½ cup moist, plump raisins (dark or gilt) or stale cranberries
ii cups carbohydrate
one cup canola or safflower oil
iv large eggs

For the Frosting

8 ounces foam cheese, at room temperature
ane stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 pound (3¾ cups) confectioners' carbohydrate
i tablespoon fresh lemon juice or ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract
½ cup shredded coconut, optional
Toasted finely chopped nuts and/or toasted coconut, for topping, optional

Ingredient Commutation Guide

Grooming

For the cake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour three nine-inch round, 2-inch deep cake pans, flour the insides and tap out the backlog.
Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking pulverization, baking soda and salt and set aside. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut and raisins.
Working in a mixer fitted with the paddle zipper, or in a large bowl with a whisk, beat the sugar and oil together until smoothen. Add the eggs one past one and keep to beat out until the batter is fifty-fifty smoother. If you are working in a mixer, reduce the speed to low, if y'all're working past manus switch to a large rubber spatula, and gently stir in the flour mixture — mix only until the dry ingredients disappear. Just every bit gently, stir in the mesomorphic ingredients.
Divide the batter amid the baking pans and slide the pans into the oven. Bake the cakes for forty to l minutes, rotating the pans top to lesser and front to dorsum at the midway signal. The cakes are properly broiled when a knife inserted into the centers of the cakes comes out clean; the cakes will just first to come abroad from the edges. Transfer the pans to cooling racks, cool for 5 minutes, so plough out onto racks to absurd to room temperature. (At this signal, the cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; thaw before frosting.)
For the frosting: Working in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add together the confectioners' sugar and continue to vanquish until the frosting is velvety smoothen. Beat in the lemon juice or excerpt.
If yous'd like to have coconut in the filling, scoop out well-nigh ½ of the frosting and stir the coconut into this portion.
To frost the cake, place one layer of the cake, correct-side up, on a cardboard round or a cake plate. If y'all've added coconut to the frosting, use half of coconut frosting to generously embrace the outset layer. Apply an offset spatula or a spoon to smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with the second layer, this time placing the cake top-side downwardly. Frost with the remainder of the kokosnoot frosting. Elevation with the last layer, right-side upwardly and utilize the obviously frosting to encompass the acme — and the sides, if you lot desire – of the cake. Finish the top layer with swirls of frosting. If y'all want to height the cake with toasted nuts or kokosnoot, sprinkle on these ingredients now, while the frosting is soft. Slide the cake into the refrigerator for 15 minutes, just to set up the frosting.
Serving: The cake tin be served as shortly as the frosting is set. It tin can also wait, at room temperature and covered with a cake keeper, overnight. The block is best served in thick slices at room temperature and, while information technology's expert plain, it'due south amend with whipped cream, vanilla water ice foam or even some lemon curd with a niggling whipped foam folded in.
Storing: Covered the block volition continue at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. It can also exist frozen, uncovered, and then, when it is firmed, wrapped closed and kept in the freezer for up to 2 months; defrost, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight.

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