Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting..

It was a day before our 2nd wedding anniversary, as decided Subbu and me got together to bake the cake It was like an expedition for us !! The cake tasted great.. Here is the recipe..

Ingredients :

1 cup(100gms) walnuts or almonds, 2 and 1/2 cups (340gms) of grated carrots, 2 cups (280gms) of all purpose flour,

1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon,

4 large eggs, 1 and 1/2 cups sugar (300gms), 1 cup (240ml) vegetable or cannola oil, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract,

1/2 cup of crushed pineapple.

Cream cheese Frosting :

1/4 cup unsalted butter ( 57gms) , 8 ounces ( 227 gms) of cream cheese at room temperature, 2 cups ( 230gm) of icing sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, lemon zest of a lemon

Procedure :

Note : I used only half the measure of the ingredients mentioned here.. That was sufficient for the 2 of us !!

Butter the baking pans and preheat the oven to 350F . Toast the almonds /pecans and let it cool. Grate the carrots.

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients together. ie. flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon powder.

Beat the eggs until frothy for a minute with a mixer. Add sugar and beat again for 3-4 minutes till the batter is thick lighter in color. Add oil and and vanilla extract and beat again. Now add the crushed pineapple also and mix. To this mixture add the dry flour mixture slowly and beat well. Now add the grated carrots and the almonds and mix with a spoon. Pour this mixture in the pan and bake for 20-30 mins or until done. Check with a toothpick at the centre. Now let it cool.

Mean while we need to make the cream cheese frosting. With the mixer beat the cream cheese and butter until blended with no lumps. Now add the powdered sugar and beat well. Mix in the lemon zest and the vanilla extract in the end. Now the frosting is ready to use on the cake. U can decorate the cake the way u want it. U can also make layers of the cake and then add the frosting in between also. I didnt do this. Here are the pictures.