Carrot Cake

UPDATE: I made this cake again for Vance's birthday and decided to decorate it with carrot marzipan.

This is one of my favorite carrot cake recipe and it comes from The Pioneer Woman herself. Vance loves this cake but I don't bake a lot so he has to wait until I'm in the mood to make them (when I am not being lazy).

You can bake the cake the day before and let it cool in the fridge before frosting. You should never, EVER, ever frost a cake when it's still warm ... not even lukewarm! Here's Pioneer Woman's recipe for Sigrid's Carrot Cake (click on the link to go to her site!)

P/S - I made this cake using a round cake pan, you can use a sheet cake pan or a Bundt cake pan. I think next time, I'm gonna cut the cake into halves and put some of the icing in the middle as well.

For cake:
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Oil
4 whole Eggs
2 cups All-purpose Flour
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
2 cups Grated Carrots (grated finely)

For Icing:
1 stick Regular Butter, Softened
1 package (8 Oz) Cream Cheese
1 pound Powdered Sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 cup Pecans (toasted), Chopped Finely

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix sugar, oil and eggs together until it looks like a smooth curd. In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients into the egg mixture.

Add grated carrots and mix well.

Pour into a greased and floured  9 x 13 sheet cake pan or a 9 inch round cake pan (I used silicone pans so I didn't have to grease ans flour the pan). Bake until done, about 25 mins for sheet cake pan and about 50 mins for round cake pan. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool completely before icing.

In larger bowl, mix butter and cream cheese. Cream until smooth.

Add vanilla and sugar. Mix well.

Then add in the pecans.

Spread on cooled carrot cake. Voila! Commence food porn ...

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!