Best Carrot Cake Recipe Ever

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In honor of Easter this weekend, I made the yummiest carrot cake that I know of. Carrot cake is Easter-y, right? It’s made with carrots. Bunnies like carrots. The Easter bunny is…well…a bunny. He must love carrot cake. It all makes sense to me. If you want to check out our Dark Chocolate Strawberry Cake after this, I wouldn’t be mad at you.

For the holiday – I’m out of town visiting family again. And you know the pressure that I have of making the world’s yummiest desserts during my visit and my family doesn’t hold back any punches. If it sucks…they pretty much say it sucks plus more. Good thing this carrot cake from scratch was a huge hit. Did you catch that? Carrot cake from SCRATCH!  That’s right, this cake-box-loving gal made another cake from scratch. My last Strawberry Cake (from scratch!) was such a hit with the family, I knew that only a cake from scratch would keep my reputation.

Good thing this carrot cake was a homerun!  It is phenomenal! You can’t go wrong with this one. It is seriously deeee-licious plus has all the goodies that a true carrot cake should have – carrots, pineapple, walnuts and coconut.

Carrot Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated carrot
• 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 (3 1/2-ounce) can flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Step by Step Directions

1.  Line 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; lightly grease and flour wax paper. Set pans aside.

2. Stir together flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

4. Beat eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in carrot, coconut, pineapple and walnuts.

5. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.

6. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze (recipe below) evenly over layers (I only used about 2/3 of the prepared glaze which I thought was perfect!); cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

7. Once the cake is cooled, slice each layer in half to give you a total of 4 layers.  More layers = more frosting = me happy! Note: I put the 2 cake layers in the freezer for 45 minutes to make slicing them in half easier.

8. Make the cream cheese frosting according the recipe below. You can use a canned frosting but it won’t hold a candle to this delicious homemade icing!

9. Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. I’m a BIG frosting person so I made 1 1/2 batches of the cream cheese frosting to make sure the cake was completely covered. I also sprinkled chopped walnuts in between each frosted layer to take it over the top.

10. Slice and enjoy!

Buttermilk Glaze Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Step by Step Glaze Directions

1. Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Step by Step Frosting Directions

1. Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.