Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time to bake up some Tuesday Treats in my house!

Carrot Cake  is one of my all time favorite cakes!  It’s moist, it’s dense and it’s lightly spiced with cinnamon.  Top it off with a thick layer of rich, creamy, not too sweet Cream Cheese Frosting and I’m in cake heaven every day for a week.  Well, if I’m lucky and my kids aren’t visiting us, then I can make this cake last for a week!   Pesky darned kids, you can move them out of your house, but you can’t stop them from dropping by to eat your cake!

By now you’re probably figuring out that I follow my Mom’s rules when it comes to cooking and baking:
1)  The recipe should have ingredients found in nearly any pantry and fridge in the country at nearly anytime of the week.
2)  The recipe should be EASY to make!
3)  The recipe should use as few appliances as possible.
4)  Most importantly – the recipe should use as few DISHES, BOWLS, POTS and PANS as possible!

So here are the steps to making my carrot cake and my cream cheese frosting.  Even if you don’t like carrot cake, stick around for the cream cheese frosting recipe, it’s not like others you’ve tried and you’re gonna lap it up – I promise!  😎 

First up, the ingredients for the cake.  I know it looks like a lot, and you do need a can of crushed pineapple, and maybe some pecans or walnuts for adding in and tossing at the frosted cake to make it all pretty n stuff, but other than that it’s just the basics here – flour, carrots, sugar, cinnamon and leavening along with an egg or three and some mayonnaise.

Be forewarned, there is NO beating involved in the making of this carrot cake.  Yep, no mixers and no wearing out your arms!  Just toss in the sugar, mayo and eggs, then stir them up a bit.

I can’t vouch for the sanctity of the carrots though – they WILL be harmed, MUCH harmed – like this:

Ok, now that the squeamish part is done, toss the carrots in and stir a bit more to mix it all up.  Plop that can of crushed pineapple right in there too!

Stir gently and then toss in the flour, and top it with the baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Oh and you can toss in some chopped nuts too if you like them.  I like them… a lot!!

All that’s left is to pour the batter into your choice of baking pans.  If you want a fancy cake, use 2 well greased 9″ cake pans.  If it’s just for you (and let’s face it, why shouldn’t it be just for you, huh?  You deserve it!) then pour it into a well greased 9 x 13 baking pan.  Throw them into the oven, clean up the counters and start making your frosting while the house fills up with the scent of Christmas.  Head on over here for the cream cheese frosting recipe:  The Frosting

About 35 minutes later your cream cheese frosting will be done and the carrot cakes will pop out of the oven to cool.  Don’t they look good enough to eat even without frosting?  But wait for the frosting… patience is a virtue.  😆 

It’s time to frost these bad boys!  Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE CARROT CAKE with CREAM CHEESE FROSTING!  Oh, was I yelling?  Sorry… back to the blog… I’m ok now…

Um, and I should probably mention that I really, really love LOTS of cream cheese frosting on my carrot cake!  (gosh, what’s gotten into me today, I’m feeling all fiesty n stuff!)

Once you slap all the frosting onto the cake, throw a few crushed walnuts around the bottom 3 inches of the cake, then yank the waxed paper strips away to reveal a perfectly clean and lovely cake plate and you get this… ready for it?

Here’s the recipe for my extra easy, practically foolproof Carrot Cake.  Now go get those ingredients out of your pantry and get baking… and in case you missed the link to my extra special Cream Cheese Frosting – here it is again.  Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

I ripped this recipe out of a magazine at Yale New Haven Hospital in 1980. I apologize to the next reader of that mag in the Pedi-ICU. You missed out on something wonderful, but I'm sharing it now! It's easy, it's delicious and it's been a staple in my family for over 30 years.

Author: Toni

Recipe type: Cakes

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Mayonnaise
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 12 oz. can Crushed Pineapple - Do Not Drain!
• 2½ Cups Shredded Carrots
• 3 Cups Flour
• 3 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 tsp. Salt
• ½ Cup. Walnuts - Chopped

Instructions

1. Mix mayonnaise with sugar and eggs till all is well mixed and smooth.
2. Add pineapple and carrots and stir till combined.
3. Add dry ingredients and nuts. Stir gently till mixed. Do not over mix!
4. Bake in 2 greased 9 inch pans for 30 -35 minutes or in a 9x13 pan for 35 – 40 minutes. (Cake will be moist crumbles when you insert a toothpick in the center)
5. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Notes

Flavor will improve if cake you refrigerate the cake so it ages for 1 day before serving.

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