Carrot Cake

 What you’ll need

2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Vegetable or Canola Oil

4 Sticks Unsalted butter (Room Temperature)

4 Eggs (Room Temperature)

2 1/2 Cups Chopped Walnuts

1 can 15 ounces of Crushed Pineapple

2 Cups Matchstix Carrots

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon Baking soda

2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon All Spice

1/4 Teaspoon salt

Confectioners Sugar

4 Ounces Cream Cheese (Cold)

Vanilla Extract

 

Tools You’ll need

Two 8 inch round baking pans

2 Large Decorating bags

2 couplers

Wilton #5 tip

Orange and Green Gel Paste Food Coloring

 

Preparation of ingredients

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Step 1-Add 2 1/2 Cups of Chopped Walnuts into a square 9×13 baking pan. Place into preheated 400 degree oven for 3 minutes. Do not leave them in longer or your walnuts will burn. IF you are using whole walnuts make sure you chop them into tiny pieces before you toast them.

Step 2-Drain your crushed Pineapple into mesh strainer. You will need only 1/4 cup of the pineapple juice from the crushed pineapple. You will add this into your cake batter later.

 

Preparing your cake batter

Step 3- Sift 2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour, 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder, 1 Teaspoon baking soda, 2 Teaspoons Cinnamon, 1 Teaspoon All spice, and 1/4 Teaspoon Salt into a large bowl. Set aside.

Step 4- Add 4 Large Eggs(Room Temperature), 1/2 Cup Melted Unsalted Butter, 1/2 Cup Vegetable or canola oil, 1 Cup Sugar, 1 Cup Brown Sugar, and 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract and mix on medium speed for 5 minutes.

Step 5- Add 1 1/4 Cup of the All Purpose flour mixture that you sifted. Mix until well combined. Once done add an additional 1 1/4 Cup of the all Purpose Flour mixture and mix until well combined.

Step 6- Add 15oz can Crushed pineapple and 1/4 Cup of the pineapple juice. Mix on low speed until well combined

Step 7-Add 2 Cups Matchstick Carrots, mix on low speed until well combined.

Step 8- Add 1 Cup of the Toasted Chopped Walnuts. Mix on low speed until well combined.

***Spray two 8 inch round pans with Non-Stick Baking Spray***

**Preheat Oven to 325 Degrees***

Step 9- Add Carrot Cake batter into pans as evenly as possible. Gently shake pans on table and give them a slight tap onto the table. This ensures that the batter is even.

Step 10- Place pans into preheated 325 Degree oven for 35 minutes.

Step 11- Remove pans out of oven. Toothpick test inserted into both pans should come out clean. If the toothpick does not come out clean bake for an additional 5 to 7 minutes. Let cake cool for 3 hours.

Step 12- Once the cake layers has completely cooled, using a sharp knife trim dome off the top of each cake layer. If your cake does not have a dome then skip this step.

Step 13- Flip one cake layer over and place it onto either a cake turn table or serving cake dish. You will use this layer as the bottom layer of your carrot cake.

 

Making your Cream cheese frosting

Note- In my opinion, cold cream cheese is better to use simply because it is still very soft and does not have a hard texture as butter when cold so it will mix well with the butter. Also adding less will reduce the chances on your frosting becoming too runny BUT without sacrificing taste. Just make sure that your butter is softened and at room temperature.

Step 14-Add 2 Sticks Unsalted Butter(Room Temperature), Add 4 ounces cream cheese (cold) Mix until well combined.

Step- 15-Add 2 Cups confectioners Sugar, Mix until well combined. Once done add an additional 2 Cups Confectioners Sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, mix until well combined. Mix until well combined.

 

Making your buttercream frosting

Step 16- Add 1 Stick Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature) and 2 cups of Confectioners Sugar. Mix until well combined. You will notice that your buttercream will be really thick but in the next step we will thin it out some.

Step 17- Add 2 Teaspoons Whole Milk and 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract. Mix until well combined.

 

Coloring your Buttercream

Step 17- Remove half of the buttercream and place it into a small separate bowl. You will have 2 separate bowls of buttercream. Once in your mixing bowl that your originally mixed your buttercream in and the other half will be in a separate bowl.

Step 18-In one of the separate bowls, Add 1/4 teaspoon of orange gel paste food coloring and mix until well combined. If you do not have the orange gel paste food coloring then add 1/4 teaspoon of red and 1/4 teaspoon of yellow gel paste food coloring and mix until well combined.

Step 19- In one of the separate bowls Add 1/4 teaspoon of Green Gel Paste Food Coloring and mix until well combined.  If you do not have the Green gel paste food coloring then add 1/4 teaspoon of blue and 1/4 teaspoon of yellow gel paste food coloring and mix until well combined.

Step 20- Add the orange buttercream into decorating bag with coupler already inside the bag and Add Green buttercream into separate bag with coupler and tip already in place. Shake both bags in a downward motion to get buttercream to settle toward the bottom and twist the top of each decorating bag to prevent any buttercream from coming out of the top of the bag. Set aside.

 

Decorating your carrot cake

Step 21- Place a large amount Cream cheese frosting about 1 1/3 Cup of Cream cheese frosting onto bottom layer of carrot cake. Spread around with spatula as evenly as possible.

NOTE- The measurement I mentioned in the above step was just an estimate but you may need more or less depending on your desired amount of filling that you wish to have in the middle of your cake layer. Whatever frosting you will have left will be added onto the the tops and sides of your cake.

Step 22- Place 2nd layer of carrot cake on to the top of the bottom layer. Make sure that your cream cheese frosting is added onto the bottom layer and spread around that layer as evenly as possible.

Step 23-Take a small amount of cream cheese frosting (1/3 Cup) Onto the top layer of carrot cake. Spread around the top and sides of carrot cake. This will be the crumb coat for the carrot cake. Also make sure that you seal in the middle of the carrot cake by applying a small amount of cream cheese frosting onto the sides of the cake if there are any unfilled spots.

Step 24- Place cake into fridge for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove cake out of fridge.

Step 25- Place a large amount of the cream cheese frosting (All of it) onto the top layer of carrot cake. Take spatula and spread around the top layer of cake. As the frosting is spreaded you will notice that as the frosting reaches the ends of the cake it will free fall very slowly down the sides of the cake allowing you to frost the sides of the cake as well.

Step 26- Take spatula and even out the top and sides of the cake as even as possible. Once done the top and sides of the cake will be smooth.

Step 27- Take 1 1/2 Cup of toasted chopped walnuts and place along the sides of the cake in hand fulls the best way you can. Make sure you have a pan underneath to catch any walnut pieces that fall off of the cake.

Step 28- Pipe out your orange buttercream onto the top of your cake starting 1 to 2 inches from the center and piping until you reach about 1 inch from the edge of the cake. You can pipe out as many of these as you like. I made 8 carrots for this recipe.

 

Step 29- Take your green buttercream and pipe out two lines going from the corner ends of the carrot until you reach the edge of the cake. Once done you will will have some what of a triangle. Fill that triangle with lines until the the entire inside of the triangle is covered with lines.

Serve and enjoy!