Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Carrot Cake with Raisins before it’s baked
This week I enjoyed a “muffin morning” with my Bible study group. (This is a time once a month when we set aside a special time to socialize and eat before digging into our study.) I brought some carrot cake mini muffins that I made, and since a few ladies asked for the recipe, I decided to include it this week.
There are many forms this cake can be made into: cake, mini-loaf, muffins and mini-muffins. As with any kind of cake, baking time will vary depending on your pan size, type and oven temperature, so always double-check that the middle is done before taking it out of the oven. My preferred method of testing is a toothpick in the centre – if it comes out clean, it’s baked. If there’s still batter on the toothpick, it needs more time.
Although I try to live by the toothpick rule, the last time I made this cake in a pan, it probably could have used a little bit more time in the oven than I gave it. After it cooled, the middle sank a bit, but for cream cheese icing lovers, that just means a thicker layer of icing on the middle pieces!
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup oil (I used vegetable)
- 3 eggs (room temperature is best)
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 1 ⅓ cup flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 cups grated carrots (about 2 large carrots)
- 1 cup raisins
- 4 oz (125g) cream cheese, room temperature
- ¼ cup butter, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups icing sugar
- Beat together sugar and oil.
- Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon & salt.
- Add to sugar mixture, stir just until all ingredients are wet.
- Add carrots & raisins, stir until just mixed in. Do not over-mix.
- Bake in a 9" x 9" pan at 350F for 35-40 minutes.
- Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth.
- Add icing sugar slowly and beat until smooth.
- Spread on cooled cake.
- To make dry raisins moist: In a sauce pan, add enough water to just cover the raisins and simmer on the stove for 10 minutes, or until they are as plump as you want. Drain water, cool slightly and add raisins to batter.
- Makes 4 dozen mini muffins. Place muffin papers in tins. Fill muffin papers ⅔ full with batter and bake for approximately 15 minutes.
Carrot Cake Mini Muffins
Later, as I spoke to some of the ladies during our muffin morning, they told me about their own recipes for carrot cake. Some have added applesauce (as a substitute for some of the oil), some added pineapple and others have added walnuts. All options sound very delicious! I believe this recipe would allow you to make different additions without affecting the outcome too much, so if you add your own extras, let me know what you added and how it turned out in the comments below.
I hope you enjoy this moist cake, with or without raisins, walnuts, pineapple and/or applesauce!