Carrot Cake and Cake Frosting Tips

So, here is THE Carrot Cake recipe we made for Z’s 2nd birthday party. We’ve tried a few carrot cake recipes and none are as good as this one. And can you believe it comes from All Recipes? Nothing fancy here! This recipe is not healthy, you are now warned. But, one step to make it not so bad is we substitute half the oil the recipe calls for with applesauce. Also, if your task is to grate the carrots, well – there’s a full workout right there because let me tell you, grating 3 1/2 C of carrot is a big deal on your arm. A few other notes on the recipe: I add another teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2C more carrot, and omit the pecans. Got it?

Grating the carrot.

Mixing the batter.

https://vine.co/v/hjZQHlHMWKw/embed/simple//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsFolding in the carrot.

Then the fun – make the frosting! The easiest recipe for cream cheese frosting: mix 1 stick room temp butter with 1 8 oz block of room temp cream cheese. Mix in 3C confectioner’s sugar and 1 Tsp vanilla. Perfect cream cheese frosting!

And now I thought I’d share some cake frosting tips. Last year when we had Z’s first birthday party I made a traditional round 2-layer cake and I wanted to learn how to properly frost a cake so it was fully covered in frosting with a smooth finish, neatly on a cake plate. First step. When you’re flipping your cake onto whatever plate you’re going to serve it on, put parchment paper underneath. This is the best tip ever from Ina Garten, so smart.

Then, it’s time to frost. Here’s the next genius tip, this one I got from craft blogger extraordinaire Jordan from Oh Happy Day.  First, apply a thin layer of frosting on your cake called the crumb layer. Don’t fret if it literally comes out crumby. After the crumb layer stick the cake in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.

Take the cake out and apply the rest of your frosting and you’ll get a smooth (cake crumb free) final layer of frosting. Why didn’t I think of this?!

Last step, remove the parchment paper when you’re done frosting and your cake plate will remain clean and tidy. Beautifully frosted, yummy cake – enjoy!