Perfectly sweet and spiced carrot cake! Loaded with fresh carrots and a touch of apple sauce makes for a super moist mouth-watering dessert. We love how the frosting is not overly sweet and perfectly compliments the flavours of the cake. It’s quick, it’s easy and completely delicious!
What you will need:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes (plus more for decorating)
- 3 cups finely grated carrots
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz. light cream cheese; slightly softened (leave out approx. 30 minutes)
- ½ cup unsalted butter; softened
- 2 ½ cups icing sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
Prep Time: 30 minutes – Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, grease baking pans, line with parchment paper (cut to shape and size of your pan), and spray parchment paper again. We used three 6” tart trays to create a mini 3 layer cake, but you can also use two 9” baking pans.
- Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger into a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk together.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to blend together vegetable oil, apple sauce, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla.
- Add in dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add in grated carrots and coconut then mix just enough to evenly distribute. Do not over mix. Divide batter evenly amongst prepared cake pans.
- If using 9” baking pans, bake for 35-38 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. We used the three smaller pans and baked the cakes for 25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cakes to loosen, invert the pans over a wire rack and let cool completely.
- For the frosting: add cream cheese and butter into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add icing sugar and vanilla then whip together at a high speed for about a minute until fluffy.
- Once cakes are completely cooled, frost tops of each cake layer starting from the bottom up, pile them on top of one another as you go. Finish by frosting all outer edges of the cake.
- Next it’s time to decorate! We choose to decorate with shredded coconut flakes. Alternatively, you could use chopped walnuts or pecans.
The Rustic Kitchen 