Homemade Carrot Cake w/ cream cheese frosting

A couple threads on buying a carrot cake, its such an easy thing to make I cant see doing that. Whipped up a cake today using the time tested recipe in Joy of Cooking, and did the cream cheese frosting in the food prcesor for the first time. Really nice spicy cake, with that rich frosting. Made this one for my boss(giving him 1/2), hoping to increase my odds for a x-mas bonus...

Heres mine(would have liked to have found some marzipan carrots to dress it up, but its all good.








thanks for looking

I didn't know you could make carrot cake in a smoker.

pigOut wrote:I didn't know you could make carrot cake in a smoker.

You are funny.

@Jim- Any raisins or nuts in there? Reminds me of Maude's organic carrot cake, which is the very best carrot cake I've ever tasted(I don't think it's because its organic just a fine recipe).

pairs4life wrote:

pigOut wrote:I didn't know you could make carrot cake in a smoker.

You are funny.

@Jim- Any raisins or nuts in there? Reminds me of Maude's organic carrot cake, which is the very best carrot cake I've ever tasted(I don't think it's because its organic just a fine recipe).

Has the meaninglessly placed @ symbol now made it into regular internet lexicon? God I hate Twitter.

Kennyz wrote:

pairs4life wrote:

pigOut wrote:I didn't know you could make carrot cake in a smoker.

You are funny.

@Jim- Any raisins or nuts in there? Reminds me of Maude's organic carrot cake, which is the very best carrot cake I've ever tasted(I don't think it's because its organic just a fine recipe).

Has the meaninglessly placed @ symbol now made it into regular internet lexicon? God I hate Twitter.

It's easier to alert w/o pm which person in the thread you want to direct your comments. I will admit I knew, w/o you using @pairs4life that you meant me To turn a phrase: @Kennyz- Don't hate the player, hate the game.(man I couldn't resist that one).

didnt do it in the smoker... that is pretty funny though ..


no nuts, or raisins, I like to just taste the carrots. It was the basic Joy of Cooking recipe, but I added about a 1/2 tsp of ground ginger for some more spice.

Cream cheese frosting was easy in the food processor(cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar.. pulse..)

A very good and different carrot cake recipe is the one from the Silver Palate. The carrots are cooked and pureed -
http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/3 ... arrot.html

Great looking cake, Jim.

This thread reminded me that I haven't made one in a while. I searched around a bit and found the recipe that I've used in the past, which uses 6 cups of grated carrots, which makes it taste more like a carrot cake to me than a spice cake with a few shreds of carrot (my biggest complaint about most carrot cakes).

-Dan

dansch wrote:Great looking cake, Jim.

This thread reminded me that I haven't made one in a while. I searched around a bit and found the recipe that I've used in the past, which uses 6 cups of grated carrots, which makes it taste more like a carrot cake to me than a spice cake with a few shreds of carrot (my biggest complaint about most carrot cakes).

-Dan

wow that is a large ammount of carrots, I bet the end result is great. Ill have to try that one.

jimswside wrote:didnt do it in the smoker... that is pretty funny though ..


no nuts, or raisins, I like to just taste the carrots. It was the basic Joy of Cooking recipe, but I added about a 1/2 tsp of ground ginger for some more spice.

Cream cheese frosting was easy in the food processor(cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar.. pulse..)

Maude's organic carrot cake is the same. No raisins or nuts.

dansch wrote:Great looking cake, Jim.

This thread reminded me that I haven't made one in a while. I searched around a bit and found the recipe that I've used in the past, which uses 6 cups of grated carrots, which makes it taste more like a carrot cake to me than a spice cake with a few shreds of carrot (my biggest complaint about most carrot cakes).

-Dan

I have been looking for the ultimate carrot cake recipe for a while now-this one sounds good-but I am not a fan of pineapple or raisins in my carrot cake. Do you think I could leave them out without ruining the recipe?
The best restaurant carrot cake I have ever had was at Hub 51. Would love to have that recipe!

Diane wrote:

dansch wrote:I searched around a bit and found the recipe that I've used in the past, which uses 6 cups of grated carrots, which makes it taste more like a carrot cake to me than a spice cake with a few shreds of carrot (my biggest complaint about most carrot cakes).

I have been looking for the ultimate carrot cake recipe for a while now-this one sounds good-but I am not a fan of pineapple or raisins in my carrot cake. Do you think I could leave them out without ruining the recipe?

I'm all but certain that I've left the pineapple out most times that I've made it - usually because I don't have any on hand (not a pantry staple in my house). Anyway, I think it's fine without.

-Dan

dansch wrote:

Diane wrote:

dansch wrote:I searched around a bit and found the recipe that I've used in the past, which uses 6 cups of grated carrots, which makes it taste more like a carrot cake to me than a spice cake with a few shreds of carrot (my biggest complaint about most carrot cakes).

I have been looking for the ultimate carrot cake recipe for a while now-this one sounds good-but I am not a fan of pineapple or raisins in my carrot cake. Do you think I could leave them out without ruining the recipe?

I'm all but certain that I've left the pineapple out most times that I've made it - usually because I don't have any on hand (not a pantry staple in my house). Anyway, I think it's fine without.

-Dan

Thanks! I'll print it out for future baking. Good to know!

Would the recipe posted above work with two 9-inch pans that aren't springform? I dunno if the sides of my pans are as tall as those of a springform... thanks!

I have been looking for the ultimate carrot cake recipe for a while now-this one sounds good-but I am not a fan of pineapple or raisins in my carrot cake. Do you think I could leave them out without ruining the recipe?

I always leave out the pineapple and the cake turns out great. One thing that I have added instead of raisins is dried cranberries. Ooooh so good.

Question about cream cheese frosting: I used less confectioner's sugar and a little less butter than the recipe I had called for. Don't worry, I didn't cut out very much! lol Recipes for cream cheese frosting varied from recipe to recipe though. The day the cake was made, the cake and frosting tasted delicious but over the next two days, the frosting seemed to become gluey, almost stringy kinda like melted mozzarella (best description I could find). The taste was the same though. We kept the cake refrigerated when it wasn't being eaten. Do you think I could solve this problem by adding more confectioner's sugar and/or butter to the cream cheese frosting next time I make it? Thanks!