Cream Cheese Frosting for David’s Carrot Cake

When younger daughter’s July birthday rolls around, you can be sure that carrot cake is baking in our oven and cream cheese frosting is being whipped in the big mixer.  This is a family favorite!  And because cake with cream cheese frosting needs to be refrigerated, this is a great dessert for summer.  (Once you’ve baked the actual cake and turned the oven off, that is.)

David’s Carrot Cake

David's carrot cake is the one that makes carrot lovers out of carrot haters! The main ingredient is boiled then mashed, creating a moist cake without obvious carrot bits but loads of flavor. Top with cream cheese icing!

We call this David’s Carrot Cake because we were first introduced to it by my dear friend, Jacky, when she made it for her son’s birthday, way back when we were living in Brazil, probably circa 1996 or 1997. 

We made a lot of fancy cakes back then but this one didn’t need decorations or specially shaped pans to make it great. The cake, with cream cheese frosting, is enough. 

It has single-handedly converted more than a few non-carrot eaters to lovers. Jacky got so many requests for the recipe that I ended up printing it in the little school newsletter I put out periodically for parents and teachers. The title was, of course, David’s Carrot Cake.

If you have been reading along for a while or at least since last March, or June before last, you know that at our house the birthday girl or boy gets to choose the cake and the evening meal. My younger daughter has requested the carrot cake for every birthday for a very long time so this makes AT LEAST one appearance at our house every year. But it often makes many more. 

Today is the day that my baby begins her final year as a teenager. Happy 19th birthday, sweet thing!

 

She was so tiny once. Just like a baby doll. And that's her sister, smug smile and all, holding the real baby doll.

 

David’s Carrot Cake

The original recipe called for 15oz of carrots by weight but that was after peeling and trimming. Hence, I have put 16 oz or 450g of carrots on the ingredient list. A little more or less will still be fine. 

Ingredients

2 eggs, at room temperature

2 cups or 400g sugar

1 cup or 240ml light cooking oil (like canola or sunflower)

16 oz or 450g carrots

2 cups or 250g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons allspice (We aren't fans of allspice so I skip it and add extra cinnamon.)

3 teaspoons cinnamon 

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chopped nuts (optional) We never add nuts but feel free if your family likes them.

Method

Peel and cut the very ends off of your carrots.  Cover them with water in a medium sized pot and cook until very fork tender.  

Drain the water off and mash them with a potato masher until there aren’t any lumps.  I do them rather fine so that haters don’t find a piece of carrot in the cake.  Transfer the mashed carrots to a bowl and leave to cool.

When your carrots are cool and you are ready to start mixing, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your cake pan by buttering and flouring it or lining it with parchment paper.  I use a rectangular pan with internal measurements of 12.5 in x 8.5 in or 32cm x 22cm.  I give the pan a quick zap of non-stick spray to keep the parchment from moving about. 

Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl, including the cooled carrots and mix well.  

Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula and beat for about two more minutes on high.

Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.   

No, it did not get bitten by a snake.  I tested it twice for doneness. Second time's the charm.

Allow to cool completely before even thinking of adding frosting.  The cream cheese frosting recipe post is up.  Carrot cake cries out for cream cheese frosting.  

Enjoy!

Update:  My baby girl has turned 20!  Of course, I baked carrot cake again.

And for her 21st, there were just three of us celebrating so I halved the ingredients and baked it in one round pan. Served with Champagne!

Poached Salmon with Creamy Caper Onion Sauce

Whenever I get home from a holiday, I reminisce by looking through my photos and remembering all the people I’ve met or visited with and all the places I’ve been.  I also reminisce about the meals I have eaten.  I’m going back through my summer photos of food because there are so many dinners and salads and desserts that got made, photographed and eaten with relish, but never got posted.  I am not even home yet and I am already feeling nostalgic for wild salmon, which I have yet to find in Cairo.

Wild salmon is much drier than its farm-raised brethren so poaching is an excellent method of cooking it.   Add on a creamy caper onion sauce and you can’t go wrong.   I cooked this, along with a cherry tomato tart, for my in-laws and it was very well received.  My father-in-law has been ill and had not been eating very well for a couple of weeks when I served this and he cleaned his plate!  We were all very excited.  Seriously.  To the point that we took a photo of his empty plate.  Looking back now, that seems weird, but it felt right at the time.  Any small victory!