I am a huge fan of old-fashioned, grandmother-style cakes. I guess I love vintage everything :)
So, I was super excited when my husband asked for a simple cake this year. No ornate decor as in the past (I made Dr. Pepper cake once, with the logo perfectly done in buttercream). All he wanted was a spice cake, and I suggested a classic bundt pan. We both love carrot cake with cream cheese frosting too, and thus the two recipes were combined. I pulled a little here and there from my favorite cookbooks (including Miette!) and came up with this recipe.
Carrot & Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (makes one 10 inch bundt cake)
Carrot Cake Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
- baking soda
- baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon of allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
- 1 cup of vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups of shredded carrots
- 1/2 cup of golden raisins
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use wax paper, a pastry brush or your hand to butter the cake pan. Make sure there’s butter in all the creases so that the cake doesn’t tear. Dust flour and leave a light coating.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and set aside. In another bowl or stand mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar till light and airy. Add the vegetable oil and whisk until well blended.
Switch to a rubber spatula or paddle attachment and add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Try to combine in as little stirs or folds as possible. Over-mixing increases the gluten and will cause a dense tough cake.
Next, add in the carrots, walnuts and raisins and blend until combine. Again don’t over mix :)
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 45 minutes. Always remember to check with a skewer or toothpick to see if the cake is done. When finished, the cake will have a warm brown color and your kitchen will smell amazing (gotta love those spices!).
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully turn bundt pan upside down onto a cooling rack and let rest for 20 minutes.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces of cream cheese (typically one package)
- 2 tablespoons of softened unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand mixer, beat the ingredients together until smooth. While the cake is still a little warm, start spreading on the frosting. I love cream cheese frosting so I opted to spread it on pretty thick!
Try the recipe and tell me what you think! My husband ate almost half of his birthday cake :)
