This year Easter will be quiet. It will be myself and my husband at home. We will be missing the kids, grandkids and family. But we know that this is only temporary and we will be together again soon.

Until then, we are trying to keep a sense of normal. So we will have our Easter dinner, and our sweets. We will have family together…on FaceTime. We will make plans for the good times ahead and we will know that someday soon we will get those warm hugs from the ones we love the most.

Today I’m sharing with you a little bit of our normal. A warm hug from me to you. Please enjoy the carrot cake recipe.

Happy Easter!

Carrot Cake

warm spicy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Course Dessert

Keyword Cake, Sweets

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 40

Equipment

Stand mixer
box grater
off set spatula

Ingredients

2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups Canola oil
4 lg eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon ground
1 tsp ginger ground
1/4 tsp cloves ground
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 medium carrots peeled and grated
1 1/2 cups walnuts chopped

Cream cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese softened
8 oz unsalted butter 2 sticks
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Decorating frosting

8 oz unsalted butter 1 stick
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1 tsp half and half
food coloring

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your pans. Spray and line with parchment.
Gather your ingredients together
In a large mixing bowl add, oil, eggs, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and vanilla. Mix for about 2 minutes until well combined.
Add flour and mix
Add carrots and walnuts and mix in by hand.
Split batter between 2 pans and bake. 350 for about 40 minutes. Rotate pan after 20 minutes.
Remove from oven, cool in pan for 5-10 minutes then transfer to rack to cool.
Make frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

Add cream cheese and butter in mixing bowl with paddle attachment and mix on medium for about 2 minutes, scraping down half way.
Add 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and mix for another 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Remove from bowl and set aside.
In the same bowl add heavy cream, 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla and with the whip attachement whip until stiff peaks.
Fold whipped cream into frosting.

Decorator frosting

place stick of butter into mixing bowl with paddle attachment and whip until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes scraping down half way through.
add cup of powdered sugar, pinch of salt and vanilla and whip until well combined and fluffy. Seperate into seperate bowls to add colors.
Add desired colors and mix well, set aside.
Place one of the cakes on a cake board, or plate. Use a little frosting as glue so the cake will not move. Frost and stack.
Once coated place in freezer or fridge to set up.
Using colored icing, I piped out "carrots" onto wax paper and froze them for 15 minutes.
Once they are frozen, you can pop them off and use to decorate your cake
Have fun with it!