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It’s my daugh­ter Andrea’s birth­day today and I just wanted to wish her a won­der­ful day.  She likes car­rot cake so I will have to make her one and get it to her soon!  Love you and miss you!!  xxx

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Car­rot Cake with Cream Cheese Frost­ing


Ingre­di­ents

3 cups all pur­pose flour
3 cups gran­u­lated sugar
1 tea­spoon salt
1 table­spoon bak­ing soda
1 table­spoon ground cin­na­mon
1 1/2 cups veg­etable oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 table­spoon vanilla extract (I like to use Mada­gas­car)
1 1/2 cups chopped wal­nuts
1 1/2 cups shred­ded coconut (I always leave this out)
1 1/2 cups pureed cooked car­rots
3/4 cup drained crushed pineap­ple
1/2 cup water (optional)

Method

1.    Pre­heat oven to 350F.  Grease two 9 inch layer cake pans line bot­tom with parch­ment cir­cle, you can also use pan with remov­able bot­tom.
2.    Sift dry ingre­di­ents into a bowl.  Add oil, eggs and vanilla.  Beat well.  Fold in wal­nuts, coconut, car­rots and pineap­ple.
3.    Pour bat­ter into the pre­pared pans.  Place on mid­dle rack of oven and bake for 40 — 50 mins, until edges have pulled away from sides and a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
4.    Cool in the pan for a few min­utes then on a rack for 3 hours or until com­pletely cool.  Fill and stack cakes and frost sides with cream cheese icing.  Dec­o­rate sides with crushed wal­nut pieces if desired.  I also made some car­rots out of coloured marzi­pan.

Colleen’s Tips -  Use at your own peril!

1.    I give my cake pans a whack on the counter before I put them in the oven to release any large air bub­bles and give the crumb of the cake a finer texture.

2.    When my cakes come out of the oven, while hot I push any domed top down to make the cake level.  No need to trim with a knife and it makes the cake dense to hold the weight of all that cream cheese!

3.    When colour­ing marzi­pan (or gumpaste) I first rub my hands with short­en­ing as you would with hand cream.  MOST of the time the colours wash straight off with hot soapy water when I’m done.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingre­di­ents

16oz cream cheese, at room tem­per­a­ture
2 sticks of but­ter, at room tem­per­a­ture
6 cups confectioners/powdered/icing sugar
2 tea­spoons vanilla extract
Juice of 1 lemon (optional but it adds a nice kick)

Method

1.    Cream together cream cheese and but­ter in a mix­ing bowl.
2.    Slowly sift in con­fec­tion­ers sugar and con­tinue beat­ing until fully incor­po­rated.  Should be free of lumps.
3.    Stir in vanilla and lemon juice if you choose to use it.

Enjoy!