Sue's Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is my husbands all time favorite cake in the world.  This is not an exaggeration, he LOVES carrot cake!  And he doesn’t just like any carrot cake, all carrot cake in the world is measured up to the cake he remembers from his childhood, his mother’s recipe. He found one that measured up at the Mixing Bowl in Richmond, but apparently they have recently changed their recipe and it no longer measures up. My amateur pallet thinks it still measures up, but he’s the expert and it just won’t do anymore. So I had to take drastic measures.....I had to learn how to make the cake his mother made. This is stressful because what if it’s not as good as he remembers? Is that my fault? Can I make it like his mother did? What if she had some secret ingredient that she didn’t tell me about? So many things running through my head, but I sucked it up and made the cake! I’m a good wife, his birthday is coming up, so I figured, let’s tackle this sucker. And tackle it I did!! That’s right, he loved it! Let’s all breath a collective sigh of relief. It was everything he remembered about his mother’s. Well, at least he’s telling me that. He probably doesn’t want to hurt my feelings. That’s fine, I’m happy thinking I can make a carrot cake he loves. I’m sure his mom sprinkled her cake with love and some other magical ingredient, but thanks for sharing your family recipe from the 70s, Sue! Hopefully Sue doesn’t mind if I share her family recipe with a few of you guys. Okay, are you ready for the best carrot cake recipe ever?? Here it is......

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cup oil (use all of the oil!)

4 eggs

3 cups grated carrots

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Directions:

Okay, first of all, yes that does sound like a lot of oil, but trust me, we needed it. The first time I made it I reduced it by 1/2 cup and it could have been a little more moist. My  husband is all about the moistness of the carrot cake so I made it again for his birthday this week with 1.5 cups of oil and it was the moistest bestest cake you ever tasted! Trust me, don't reduce it!

Blend sugar, oil and eggs together until mixed well. Add grated carrots, mix until incorporated. Sift together flour, cinnamon, soda, powder and salt. Add 1/3 of dry mixture at a time to carrot mixture. Continue until everything is mixed well.

I prefer to make this in two 9” rounds because you get more icing in the center.  We love the cream cheese icing. Feel free to make a sheet cake like David’s mom always did. If you make a sheet cake, you’ll only need half the icing recipe.

Divide cake batter into rounds, bake in 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. Check after 30 minutes, especially if you cut back on the oil. Mine was perfect at 33 minutes. You don’t want it to over bake.

Now, while that’s baking, of course you’ll want to make the cream cheese icing. That’s really why you make carrot or red velvet cake!

Icing:

12 oz. cream cheese  (softened)      

1 stick unsalted butter (softened)

1 1/2 boxes powdered sugar         

1 tsp vanilla

Mix until smooth and spread generously on the 2 layers. 

Now cut a slice and enjoy the best carrot cake you’ll ever taste!

I made the icing recipe for a sheet cake (half) this time, but next time I'll use the quantites above and will have lots more icing to go around. It was a little sparce in the center for our liking. We like lots more! It didn't hurt the flavor though, the cake was still delicious.

Update: Made it again with all of the oil and all of the icing and it was perfect! Trust me!!