Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is easy to make, healthy, and especially moist. They make a perfect breakfast or afternoon snack!

In addition to carrots, I also added one overripe banana to make the cake even moister (what a weird word "moister" is!). You don't have to add the banana if you don't have any on hand. Instead, substitute more carrots, applesauce, or canned pineapple.

If you don't have a cheese grater at home, you can also use a food processor or a blender with the blade on the bottom. If using a food processor or blender, make sure to dice the carrots beforehand and pulse to let the carrots evenly fall in the path of the blade.

For this recipe, I also used the natural color of carrot juice to color my frosting. I made the carrot juice by squeezing several handfuls of the grated carrots. In order to intensify the color, I quickly boiled the juice to reduce the liquid.

I didn't use a piping bag to decorate this cake and did it freehand, so as you can see it is quite messy. But maybe that messiness adds a sort of rustic, cottagecore vibe to the cake. Or, maybe the messiness just makes it messy. Regardless, it was still delicious. If you prefer a cleaner cut cake, double the amount of frosting in the recipe and use piping bags and scrapers.

Make sure you do NOT open the oven for at least the first 30 minutes of baking! This will allow cold air to enter the oven and the cake will not bake correctly.

Carrot Cake

makes one 8-inch diameter cake with two layers
to make a four layer cake, double the recipe and use two 8-inch baking pans

takes 3 hours

Ingredients for Cake

3 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil + more for baking

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 3/4 cup flour + more for baking

3 1/2 cups carrots, grated

1 overripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Ingredients for Buttercream Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

3 oz butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons carrot juice or 3 drops green food coloring

1 teaspoon matcha powder or one drop green food coloring

1 teaspoon brown sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 330 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a baking pan with vegetable oil and flour.
2. Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and oil. Slowly add in salt, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and flour. fold in carrots, banana, and walnuts.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes, then let cool inside the oven for 5 minutes.
4. Take out the pan and cool upside-down suspended over a plate until the cake falls out. Continue to cool upside-down until the cake can be handled without oven mitts.
5. Cut the cake in half horizontally and cool until room temperature.
6. Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar until smooth. Take out a small portion of the frosting to be colored orange and two even smaller portions to be colored green and brown. Set aside one of the smaller portions.
7. Slowly add in carrot juice and matcha powder to two of the portions until a desired color and consistency is reached. 
8. Once the two cakes are room temperature, use white frosting for the top half of one cake and place the other cake on top. Then, cover the top and sides with the rest of the white frosting.
9. Using the orange and green frostings, pipe carrots on the cake.
10. Collect all crumbs that have fell around the cake and mix it with the brown sugar and last portion of frosting to pipe a rabbit on the cake.