Carrot Cake

C's favorite cake is a carrot cake, followed closely by tres leches cake. For his birthday this year, same as the first year we were dating, he requested a carrot cake. And over the seven years we have been together, I have used Cooks' Illustrated's recipe for carrot cake and my mom's friend's recipe for cream cheese frosting. The main difference between now and the first time, is that I now own a food processor (thank you wedding registry), so I no longer have to walk around with carrot orange stained hands after grating a pound of carrots for the cake.

Carrot Cake

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon salt
1 pound carrots, peeled
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8” cake pans.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

In a food processor fitted with a large shredding disk, shred the carrots; fit the processor with the metal blade and pulse the grated carrots 3 to 5 times. Pour the carrots into a large mixing bowl. Process the granulated and brown sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With the machine running, add the oil through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process until the mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the carrots. Stir in the dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool the cake to room temperature in the pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours.

Adapted from Cooks’ Illustrated

Cream Cheese Frosting
frosts one cake or 24 cupcakes

½ cup butter, softened
8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
4 cups of confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix all ingredients until smooth.

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