Southern Living Carrot Cake

Zutaten

Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. table salt

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

3 large eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups grated carrot

1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained

3/4 cup (105 grams) raisins, preferably golden

3 1/2 oz. flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Buttermilk Glaze

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

11 ounces cream cheese, softened (about a block and a half)

1 (16-ounce) package powdered sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Anweisungen

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with parchment paper; lightly grease and flour parchment paper. Set pans aside.

Stir together first 4 ingredients—flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Beat eggs and next 4 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in carrot and next 3 ingredients.

Pour batter into prepared cake pans.

Bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Drizzle buttermilk glaze evenly over layers; cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes.

Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. When cool, spread cream cheese frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Glaze

Bring all ingredients except vanilla to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.

Frosting

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract; beat at high speed for 10 seconds or until smooth.

Notizen

The Secret to the Best Carrot Cake? Buttermilk Glaze

This cake wouldn’t be our best without the Buttermilk Glaze. This glaze, a combination of sugar, butter, buttermilk, baking soda, corn syrup, and vanilla, gets poured onto the warm layers and absorbed, keeping the crumb of the cake extra moist and supple. It adds additional sweetness and a little tang. Trust us, this cake isn’t the same without this glaze.

How To Store Carrot Cake

Carrot cake needs to be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. Cover with a cake dome or plastic wrap. It'll stay good for up to five or six days.

Can You Freeze Carrot Cake?

You can't freeze frosted carrot cake, but if you need to get ahead for a party or birthday, you can make the cake layers and freeze them. To do this, cook and cool the cake layers completely. Then wrap in plastic wrap before wrapping in aluminum foil.

Once you're ready to use the cake, just remove the layers from the freezer, and let them thaw overnight in the fridge. Then glaze and frost.

Our Tips for an Incredible Carrot Cake

As if this cake couldn't get any better, you can customize it to whatever pan you have or how much time and effort you want to put into assembling and decorating. If you don’t want to make this cake as a layer cake community member, ‘snapcook,’ says, “I make this every Easter, with 3 layers or in a 9x13 pan. It’s great either way! Rave reviews every time.”

For more flavor, try toasting the nuts and coconut before adding them to the batter.

It's important to cool the cakes completely before frosting; otherwise the frosting will just melt right off.

How can I make my carrot cake soft and moist?

Aside from not overbaking the cake layers, using crushed pineapple in the batter can help keep the cake moist, and don’t skip the Buttermilk Glaze–without it, the cake inherently won’t be as moist.

Why is my carrot cake not fluffy?

Carrot cake will never be as light and fluffy as a sponge cake. That said, it can become overly dense.

This can happen for a few reasons, from not mixing the eggs enough to incorporate air to adding in too many mix-ins like nuts, coconut, or raisins that can weigh down the cake batter–don't be tempted to fold in extra mix-ins or even carrots, stick to the amounts in the ingredient list for the best results.