Best Ever Carrot Cake

By msippigrl

THE best homemade carrot cake.. without pineapple, raisins, or coconut.. just the sweet carrots, cinnamon, and chopped pecans. And you can even omit the pecans if desired. Best I've ever tasted!

Ingredients

• CAKE:
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs (I used 3 jumbos)
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (I used Crisco)
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans, optional
• CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick salted butter, softened, 1/2 cup
• 1 (16-ounce) box confectioners sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

CAKE:
Chop pecans and grate carrots before starting the cake batter. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray 3 (9") round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms of the pans with a circle of parchment paper. Spray the paper with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and sugar. Add eggs and vegetable oil and beat with a hand mixer until well combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the carrots and pecans. Pour into cake pans.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Remove cakes from pans; gently peel off the paper then place cakes on waxed paper to cool completely on a rack before frosting.

FROSTING:
In a mixing bowl and using a mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Gradually, beat in the confectioners sugar (you may need to do this in 3-4 additions) until smooth and fluffy. As far as the pecans, you can stir them into the frosting or reserve them to decorate the top of cake (which I did).

Frost between cake layers, on the sides, and on top of cake. Garnish top as desired with the pecans. Store in the refrigerator.