Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake Recipe

Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake Recipe photo by Taste of Home

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A pleasingly moist cake, this treat is the one I requested that my mom make each year for my birthday. It's dotted with sweet carrots and a hint of cinnamon. The fluffy buttery frosting is scrumptious with chopped walnuts stirred in. One piece of this cake is never enough!—Kim Orr, West Grove, Pennsylvania

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Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake Recipe

Prep: 30 min. Bake: 35 min. + cooling

Yield: 12 Servings

30 35 65

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups grated carrots
FROSTING:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons 2% milk
1 cup chopped walnuts
Orange and green food coloring, optional

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar and oil. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; beat into egg mixture. Stir in carrots.
Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
For frosting, in another large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Add enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency. Reserve 1/2 cup frosting for decorating if desired. Stir walnuts into remaining frosting.
Spread frosting between layers and over top and sides of cake. If decorating the cake, tint 1/4 cup reserved frosting orange and 1/4 cup green. Cut a small hole in the corner of pastry or plastic bag; insert #7 round pastry tip. Fill the bag with orange frosting. Pipe twelve carrots on top of cake, so that each slice will have a carrot. Using #67 leaf pastry tip and the green frosting, pipe a leaf at the top of each carrot.
Store cake in the refrigerator. Yield: 12 servings.

Nutritional Analysis: 1 slice equals 702 calories, 36 g fat (10 g saturated fat), 99 mg cholesterol, 273 mg sodium, 90 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 8 g protein.

Originally published as Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake in Taste of Home April/May 2001, p35