Mother’s Day arrived and I got inspired to Be the Mother, which included baking a salmon, steaming asparagus and, lucky everyone, baking a carrot cake. I could not for the life of me find a recipe in my recipe box. (Did I ever have one?) So I googled Carrot Cake and found a recipe that looked interesting. As I am wont to do, as I began assembling I began tweaking the recipe and am very glad I did! I now have what it undoubtedly the best carrot cake recipe I’ve ever found and I am inspired to pass it along straightaway to you. Maybe you need to bake a cake! So here goes.
The Best Carrot Cake in the World
*Set the oven at 350 F.
*Coat the inside of a bundt pan with a mixture of soft butter and a bit of olive oil, and then sprinkle some white flour inside and shake the pan around so the flour is more or less distributed. Don’t worry. It will be fine.
*Beat four eggs in a big bowl.
*Add two teaspoons of vanilla.
*Add two cups of sugar and beat that in.
This is how it will look.
Now. This is going to sound outrageous, but just pretend you are Julia Child and go with the flow.
Melt a lot of unsweetened butter in a heavy skillet very very slowly. Do not let it get in the least bit brown, OK? You are going to want to end up with 1 1/4 cups of melted butter. (I know. I know. But I have to tell you–otherwise how will you follow the recipe?) Like this:
Add the melted butter to the egg mixture. Set aside.
Now, get out a bunch of organic carrots, peel them lightly, cut off the ends and voila.
Chop up the carrots into maybe two inch pieces, and put in Cuisinart. If you don’t have one, borrow one or invest in one. Otherwise this is going to be way too much work and we don’t want that, and besides, you won’t have this consistency.
And you are going to need it, because this recipe requires three cups of grated carrots! Yes, it does. Yummy.
Add to the egg mixture 1 3/4 cups of unbleached white flour and then 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour. Then add a pinch of salt, two teaspoons of baking powder, two teaspoons of baking soda, two teaspoons of cinnamon and then grate at least one teaspoon of nutmeg into the batter. After these are mixed up, hand stir in the three cups of carrots. Just stir a reasonable amount of time.
When this is complete, I opted to throw in a small handful of golden raisins and a sprinkling of currants. Then you will have this:
Then, my dears, fold in a cup of chopped nuts. I’d suggest walnuts or pecans. Now, isn’t this final batter amazing??
Pour the batter into the bundt pan. Pop in the oven for 50 minutes and then check to see if it’s done with a toothpick or small fork. I’ve made it twice now and both times I needed an hour.
Remove the cake from the oven.
Critical point. You must be patient. This cake should cool at least one hour before you try to remove from the pan. I slid a knife around the edges probably after half an hour and ever so gently lifted it underneath, but did not attempt to remove. After an hour I flipped the pan and the cake effortlessly slipped onto my plate. Then I waited another hour before I frosted with cream cheese frosting, which is ridiculously easy.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 C. butter, softened
8 oz. creamcheese, softened
1 teaspoon of vanilla (only use the real stuff)
4 cups of confectioner’s sugarDone.
This cake is so unbelieveably delicious I can’t wait until you try it and then let me know. This will become one of your best recipes and your family and friends will love you for making it. Enjoy, dearest readers.
Love and kitchen blessings,
Kathryn xoxox
Posted on May 15th, 2010 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Play
OH, YUM!! Your lucky readers are going to be so happy with this Amazingly Delicious carrot cake, mom! It really IS the Best!! Excellent post/pics! You’ve made it super easy and Beautiful, as always!
Love you,
Antonia
xoxo
That does look like the best carrot cake in the world.~~Dee
Hi, Antonia! Good morning! Come up! Have a slice or two! And thank you, my dear. Love, Mom xoxo
Hi, Dee, Good Sunday and thank you! Kathryn xoxo
That does look so yummy and filled with goodness.
I have not waited long enough before inverting and icing in the past, so i will be sure to be patient. The anticipation is part of the fun!
:)Philip
Hi, Philip! I, too, have been very guilty of being impatient about frosting the cakes. I’m now officially timing the cooling period. It works! Kathryn xoxo
Sounds wonderful but there is too much surgar in it for me. Do you think I could swap the sugar in the cake for 1/2 the amount in honey? Could I swap the unbleached white flower for a 50/50 mix of unbleached white and whole wheat? I’ll have to forgo the powdered sugar in the icing and rework that. Maybe just whipped cream cheese. However, if I can reduce the sugar, it would work for a diabetic diet because the carrots, raisens, and nuts are so good for you. I’ll have to try to experiment a bit with this. It might work for breakfast muffins. Thanks for the idea. I try to get some kinds of fruits, etc. in with morning breakfast. Did my Mom’s rhubarb torte yesterday with 1/2 the honey instead of the sugar and put oat bran and old fashioned rolled oats into the crumb top with much less brown sugar and it worked out really very good. That means that rhubarb can come back into my diet again.
Good morning, Julie! Yes, I think you can adjust to suit your own dietary needs. You can switch out the sugar and honey and you will have to experiment with the amounts, since honey is not a dry ingredient. You could even experiment with molasses! You can always switch the kinds of flour. The recipe I originally found called for all white flour. I thought it needed beefing up, so I added the whole wheat 1/4 cup, but there are folks out there who would definitely prefer half and half or even all whole wheat. Whatever works for you. And, yes, the carrots, raisins and nuts are good for us, and that’s one of the reasons I love this cake. It’s very rich, obviously, so I would save this cake for special occasions. But, having said that, the muffin idea is also good. And sans icing is just fine. Thanks for the rhubarb nudge. I will try. Kathryn xoxo
I’m looking for a carrot cake recipe for my husband’s birthday. Can I omit the currents/raisins?
Hi, Amy! Welcome! Yes, you absolutely can omit the currants and raisins. No problem. Enjoy! Kathryn xoxo
I love carrot cake but haven’t made one in years. You’ve inspired me! I appreciate your special touches like using a bundt pan and replacing regular raisins with your golden raisins and currants, yum!
Love,
Kathlene
Hi, Kathlene! Oh, I hope you make it. Your family will be so glad–you, too! Yummy! Love, Kathryn xoxo
That looks yummy-deeelish!!! We’ll have to try it out! 🙂
Hi, Becky! Welcome! Yes, do! And let me know, will you? 🙂 Enjoy! Kathryn xoxo
I have made this twice now. It is truly delicious. Other carrot cakes I have made contained pineapple, sometimes nuts and sometimes cocoanut. This is great without any of those ingredients. Mine falls a bit in the middle but is still good. My oven is not the best, so maybe that’s why.
Hi, Clarissa! I love that you tried it (twice!) and then that you let me know!
Thank you! I’m so glad you are enjoying it! Kathryn xoxo
Hi Kathryn,
I have a suggestion for cousin Julie,
try substituting Stevia for the sugar
Stevia is a natural sweetener with ZERO calories, perfect for diabetics
It comes in liquid or crystal form
Going to try your recipe tomorrow for my friend’s birthday, Kathryn, but she wants cupcakes, so I will let you know how they turn out
Thanks so much!
Gwendolyn
Hi, Gwendolyn, welcome and thank you! I will let cousin Julie know! The cupcakes will be delicious, I’m sure. Just bake less time, as I’m sure you know. Enjoy! 🙂 Kathryn xoxo
Hi – could you tell me the exact amount of butter? Thanks
Hi, Beryl, Thank you for your query. You saw the 1/1/4C. at top, right? So I’m assuming you have discovered (and thank you) I left out the C. after 1/2 in the frosting recipe. So sorry! 🙂 Enjoy! Kathryn xoxo