My 200th Post! Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Wow...200 posts. Where has the time gone? I'm incredibly proud of my little blog here and am so appreciative of all the readers who visit me!

For my Father-in-laws birthday dinner tomorrow, I decided to make him a cake. One of my friends whose blog I visit made this recently in the form of cupcakes and I wanted to make them, however, my cupcake pan is missing in action. A 2 layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting fit the bill for a birthday cake, so I made it that way instead.

I am still working on my cake frosting and decorating techniques, but overall I think it turned out pretty good.

By the way, my in-laws are Polish and Tata = Dad in Polish. :)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
From Lovestoeat Weblog, originally from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 c. sugar
• 1 1/4 c. canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 c. grated peeled carrots
• 1 c. coarsely chopped walnuts
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350
• Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter & flour them.
• Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture & stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts. Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each.
• Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.
• To make a carrot layer cake: Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans instead of cupcake molds. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter & flour paper; tap out excess flour. Divide the batter between the prepared pans & bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely.

For Frosting

• Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tbs. vanilla extract

Directions

• In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy.
• Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly or pipe on to cakes.
• To assemble a carrot layer cake, frost the top of one cake, place the other cake on top.
• Frost the sides & top, swirling decoratively.
• Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to set up frosting.