Carrot Cake

Co-owner Tabitha Langel,
Tall Grass Prairie Bakery

This recipe is slightly retro with its use of crushed pineapples, but the result is a thick, moist cake made even better with a rich, but subtle cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients
Carrot cake
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cup organic sunflower or safflower oil
3 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 cups shredded carrot
1 1/2 cups coconut
3/4 cup roasted slivered almonds
1 cup crushed pineapple
3 1/4 cup white flour
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
Whole almonds, to garnish

Cream cheese icing
1 pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 cups icing sugar

Method
Carrot cake

1. Preheat oven to 325°C.
2. Into a large mixing bowl combine brown sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla.
3. Blend ingredients together by hand with a whisk or in the mixer just until combined, being careful not to over mix the eggs.
4. To this mixture add shredded carrot, coconut, almonds and pineapple. Set aside.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the white flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
6. Fold dry mixture into the wet mixture until the batter is a consistent texture.
7. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9-inch round pan.
8. Bake cake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Cool cake and frost with cream cheese icing.
10. Garnish with whole almonds if desired.

Cream cheese icing

1. In a mixing bowl add cream cheese, butter and vanilla.
2. With an electric hand blender, combine all three ingredients until smooth, approximately 5-6 minutes.
3. Add icing sugar to cream cheese mixture.
4. Using the electric hand blender, mix in icing sugar until fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.
5. Use icing to frost cooled cake.

Yields 10-12 servings