Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Truly, I had no idea how much I liked carrot cake until I rediscovered it when my dear friend Ashley brought some over as a pre-birthday cake last month. What a moist delight of goodness, and it is even better in small slivers frozen. I have fond memories of my mothers carrot cake she always made from scratch and finely shredded the carrots. This is the key to a fine cake in my opinion, finely shredded carrots, it takes more time but then they don't all sink to the bottom. I like to spice mine up a bit with cinnamon and ginger, because I love it! The best part of carrot cake has never been the nuts or raisins so I left them out of this version. I simply kept with the simplicity of the carrots to moisten the cake, no pineapples, sorry. And we all know what puts this cake over the top is homemade cream cheese frosting! My recipe is half size of what you would typically find because I chose to make a single layer in a 9x9 pan, a better size for us, and no need to frost sides and middles.

So in honor of carrots as more than just a side dish or on a salad, here goes!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (you can use all white if you are out of brown)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Mix above ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil

2 cups finely shredded carrots

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat eggs, then add in oil, carrots, and vanilla extract. Once well blended add in dry ingredients in the bowl.

Pour into a 9X9 glass pan and bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick coming out of center clean. Let cool completely.

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter

4 oz. cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

2-3 cups of confectionary sugar

Mix above until smooth. Frost the cake when cooled!

Buen Provecho!