A lovely cake, spice, and carrot combination. (Apologies for the messy picture - forgot to take a clean one after slicing the cake)
The recipe that I used is adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction
Ingredients:
Per 5-6 servings -
For the cake:
- 1 cup chopped pecans (substitute with walnuts or skip, if desired)
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil (substitute with melted coconut oil, if desired)
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 medium banana, mashed
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1.25 cups self rising flour (substitute with 1.25 cups all purpose flour + 1 teaspoon baking powder, if desired)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 cups loosely packed grated carrots (about 2 carrots)
For the frosting:
- 8 oz block cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions:
- Begin by toasting the pecans. Layer a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out your pecans/walnuts on it. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and toast the nuts for ~7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
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While the pecans are cooling, make the cake batter. In one small bowl, mix the brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, mashed banana, and vanilla. Mix until incorporated.
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In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Mix until incorporated.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and mix until completely incorporated with no clumps (except some banana clumps if you left it a little chunky).
- Add the carrots and half of the toasted pecans (the other 1/2 cup is for garnish) and mix.
- Layer an 8x8 dish with parchment paper and grease it. Pour the cake batter into the dish and bake for 32-38 minutes until the cake is cooked through the middle. Let the cake cool completely.
- While the cake cools, make the cake frosting. In a small mixing bowl, add the cream cheese and butter. Using an electric mixer, whisk until smooth.
- Add the sugar, vanilla, and salt gradually and continue whisking until creamy.
- When the cake has cooled completely, move the parchment paper with the cake to a baking sheet and ice the cake. I had a decent amount of icing leftover since I applied a thin icing layer, so you may have some leftover too if you do the same.
- Garnish with the remaining 1/2 cup of toasted pecans and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.
