Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Classic carrot with twist, using lemon cream cheese frosting.
Servings: 10
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 ½ cups grated carrots pat to remove moisture
- 1 ½ cups chopped toasted walnuts dust with a little of the flour so nuts suspend better in the batter
- 1/4 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts for topping
- zest of one orange
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 12 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 5 tablespoons butter at room temperature
- lemon zest and juice of one lemon
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
Carrot Cake
- Grease and flour two or three cake rounds (I used 2)
- Grate carrots (I used food processor)
- Sift together all dry ingredients
- Add zest to sugar, mix with hands
- Whip oil and sugar together until light
- Add eggs to sugar mixture
- Add flour to sugar mixture in batches, mix thoroughly
- Add carrots and walnuts
- Pour evenly in prepared cake rounds, bake immediately
- Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Mix lemon zest powdered sugar, set aside
- Mix cream cheese and butter
- Mix in powdered sugar
- Add juice of lemon
- Add 2 teaspoons vanilla
- Cover with plastic, so that plastic is touching frosting, if you are not going to use immediately. Best if used within 30 minutes or you can refrigerate until you are ready to frost. Make sure to bring to room temperature before frosting.
Assembly
- Even out the top of the cake. I like to place the cakes in the freezer for about 15 minutes prior to frosting.
- Take out of freezer, and frost a crumb coat, frosting very thing layer of frosting on the cake just to catch the crumbs. Put one layer on top of the other. Place back in refrigerator for about 10 - 15 minutes, to harden. Then frost the whole cake.
Notes
Cook time is 60 minutes, including frosting cake.