Simple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Simple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from My Kitchen Cafe

We had this cake yesterday, and it was delicious. I don't have a food processor, so I just used a fine grater for the carrots. If you like bigger carrot chunks, use the courser grater. The frosting is super smooth and creamy. I didn't use the nuts on top because I am not a nut fan, but I used MKC's picture because we had already devoured half the cake before I thought to take one.

Cake Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp table salt
1 lb. medium carrots (6 to 7 carrots), peeled
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 c. vegetable oil , safflower oil, or canola oil

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 by 9-inch baking pan or two 9-inch round pans. This step is key as I found out the hard way.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in large bowl; set aside. In a food processor shred carrots, you should have about 3 cups shredded carrots. Use a large shredding disk for bigger carrot chunks or a fine shredding disk for smaller carrots pieces. Transfer carrots to bowl and set aside.

Beat granulated and brown sugars and eggs on medium-high until thoroughly combined, about 45 seconds. Reduce speed to medium; with mixer running, add oil in slow, steady stream, being careful to pour oil against inside of bowl (if oil begins to splatter, reduce speed to low until oil is incorporated, then resume adding oil). Increase speed to high and mix until mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 45 seconds to 1 minute longer. Turn off mixer and stir in carrots and dry ingredients by hand until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.

Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake until toothpick or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time (I didn't rotate my 9-inch pans). Cool cake to room temperature in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours (Mine didn't take quite that long).

Frosting: (She recommended doubling this for two 9-inch layers, but I had way too much frosting left over, and I love frosting. Next time I'll try doing a 1 1/2 recipe)
8 oz cream cheese, softened but still cool
5 Tbsp unsalted butter softened, but still cool
1 Tbsp sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. confectioners' sugar (4 1/2 ounces)

When cake is cool, mix cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla at medium high speed in mixer with whisk attachment (or in large bowl using hand held mixer) until well combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add confectioners’ sugar and mix until very fluffy, about 1 minute. Frost and eat!