Happy Easter everyone! I hope you were all able to somehow able to celebrate it, if you normally do, whether it was by making a roast turkey or by making an Easter dessert. I decided to celebrate by making this carrot cake. I was really happy with how this recipe turned out as the cakes cooked perfectly. Some modifications I did was to bake the cakes for 30min rather than 20-25min and also to definitely grease your pans and line them with parchment paper, as it makes it so much easier to take out the cakes. Also, I added 1 cup of chopped walnuts (you could also swap for pecans or use 3/4 cup if you don't want as much) and also 1/2 cup of raisins. I added the walnuts and raisins during the time I added the flour to make sure I didn't over-mix the batter. After I took the cakes out of the oven, I let them cool for about 30min in the pan and then let them completely cool on the cooling rack for about 45min (next time I would do this for 1hr as they were still a bit warm). To do this, I had to flip them out of the pans (which was so much easier with the parchment paper) on to a plate, then flip them on to the cooling rack.
After they cooled, I then levelled the cakes, which makes a huge difference in how it stacks even if you think it's fairly flat, it's much better the level them. I couldn't find my cake leveller so I just used a bread knife and estimated. However, I have seen some people using dental floss before and I've tried that method and it actually works pretty well, but a bit minty (make sure to buy a non-mint flavoured brand if you do this). I then had to double the cream cheese frosting recipe and make two batches as I ran out once I was trying to cover half of the top of the cake. My recommendation for the cream cheese frosting is to really make sure that the cream cheese mixes long enough by itself and also when you add the butter. Make sure there are no clumps before adding the icing sugar and start out slowly on the low mode, otherwise it will fly up in the air (trust me, it just happened!). You will be able to tell when it's done once it's smooth and creamy. Start out with a thin crumb coat and then add more cream cheese frosting on top to cover all of the edges. Also, make sure to put the cake on your desired cake stand from the very beginning, as it will be difficult to move afterwards. I then used chopped walnuts to sprinkle around the perimeter of the cake.
From there, I used some of the remaining frosting to separate into two small bowls and use gel food colouring to dye them orange and green for the carrot on top. I generally use a toothpick to do this, so I can control how much of each colour I use. I used the copper gel food colouring for the orange and green for green (that one was pretty straightforward!). I then transferred the frosting in to two ziplock bags and then cut a small hole in the corner using scissors. From there, I piped a medium sized orange triangle on top of the cake and then used the green frosting to make the stem. Voila! There you have it! Although this cake was very pretty, it also took a long time (I estimate about 3hrs and 1hr for photos haha, it took a while to find a way to get the colour to pop out since the cake is so pale!). Anyways, I hope you all had a great Easter and that you enjoyed this review. Happy baking :) More to come this week!
Here is the link to the recipe: livewellbakeoften.com
#easter #easterdessert #eastercarrotcake #cake #carrotcake #creamcheese #creamcheesefrosting #vanillacreamcheesefrotsing #eastercarrotcakewithcreamcheesefrosting #carrotcakewithcreamcheesefrosting #carrotcakerecipe #bestcarrotcakerecipe #creamcheesefrostingrecipe #vanilla #cakewithcreamcheesefrosting