This is one of my all-time favorite carrot cake recipes. I inherited this recipe from a close friend about 12 years ago and it's still a favorite!
Ingredients
- butter: 1 Tbsp (softened)
- carrots: 1 pound (cut into 1/2 inch pieces, cooked)
- all-purpose flour: 3 cups
- ½ cups white sugar: 2 piece
- ½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts: 1 piece
- unsweetened pineapple: 1 can (8 ounce can, drained)
- corn oil: 1 cup
- eggs: 4 piece
- ground cinnamon: 1 Tbsp
- baking soda: 1 Tbsp
- vanilla extract: 1 Tbsp
- salt: 1 tsp
- cream cheese, at room temperature: 1 pound
- ¼ cups butter, at room temperature: 1 piece
- lemon juice: 1 Tbsp
- vanilla extract: 2 tsp
- ⅔ cups confectioners' sugar: 5 piece
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with wax paper; grease wax paper with butter.
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Combine cooked carrots, flour, white sugar, walnuts, pineapple, corn oil, eggs, cinnamon, baking soda, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl.
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Pour carrot mixture into a food processor, and blend, working in batches if necessary, until smooth. Divide batter among prepared cake pans.
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Bake cakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely, about 1 hour.
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Beat cream cheese, 1 1/4 cup butter, lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract together in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until frosting is smooth.
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Place 1 cake layer on a serving plate and spread with 1/4 of the frosting. Place a second cake layer on top of the first; spread 1/4 of the frosting on top. Place third cake layer on top; frost top and sides with remaining 1/2 of the frosting.
