Carrot Cake

This is a classic recipe that comes from a really old recipe book that my aunt gave my mom way back when she first got married.  When I first started baking, around the age of 11 or 12 this book was my only resource.  I love all the recipes in this book because they use simple ingredients and create the most delicious results.  You can frost this cake however you like, this was my first time trying out these little rosettes.  I'm not sure if you can see it clearly in the photograph but I tried to get an ombre effect.

When the cakes cook they pouf up forming domes which need to be sliced off.

Level the cakes before adding the frosting. 

The first layer of frosting is the crumb coat.  This keeps all the crumbs intact so that they don't show through the decorative layer.

Next I added the little rosettes working from the bottom of the cake upwards.  

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
2  1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups finely grated carrots
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 Cream cheese frosting Recipe

Method:

1. ​Preheat oven to 350 °C (or 180°F), combine flour, soda, cinnamon, and salt together and set aside.
2. In a large electric mixer bowl, combine oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla and beat until light -about 5 minutes.
3. Blend in carrots and nuts.
4. Blend dry ingredients, 1/3 at a time.
5. Pour Batter into a greased and floured pan.
6. Bake until top springs back when lightly pressed with fingertips (about 55-60 minutes if all the ingredients are cooked in one 9" cake pan, 35-40 minutes  if you split the batter between 2 pans).
7. Let cake stand for 10 minutes in pan before removing.
8. Cool completely in rack, frost with cream cheese frosting.  Recipe can be found here.