Part Two: Carrot Cake!!!

By far my first and best Carrot Cake ever!!! At least my sister thinks so!

And here it is!

Serving 10-15 slices or mini cakes

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups grated carrot

1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

• In a mixing bowl combine Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
• In a large mixing bowl combine eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla.
• Gradually add flour to mixture, don't over mix!
• Then Stir in carrot, pineapple, and coconut.
• Now if you are making a cake use two 9in cake pans or really any size, this cake does not rise much so fill the pan :)
• In my case I was making this for a party and needed to make bite size mini cakes. SOoo I used two pyrex baking/ casserole dishes, lined them with a sheet of tin foil, and sprayed the foil with non-stick cooking spray. This was so I could lift the cake out without any problems and less clean up :)

Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean(that is my suggestion, since every oven is different). Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze evenly over layers; cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Buttermilk Glaze

Ingredients

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

Preparation

Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.

• For cake: Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Crush walnuts and apply them to the sides of the frosting.
• For Mini Cakes: Get a small 2-3in cookie cutter (I didn't have these so I used the top of a baby food jar, and knife) Cut out the rounds (each pan made 15 rounds with the jar top)

The frosting was extremely thick and the carrot cake very fragile so I piped the frosting in between the layers. I add more frosting to decorate the top. If you have a whipped cream cheese frosting that could be a lot easier, if you are trying to cover the entire mini-cake.

Frosting

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.

As for the walnuts on the mini-cakes, I forgot about them :( So be creative!