Brooketrout Designs: My Favorite Organic Carrot Cake

A few years ago I found this organic carrot cake recipe on the whole foods website. It has become my absolute favorite carrot cake recipe. Unfortunately I can not find the link to the recipe anymore so I am posting the recipe on my blog so that I will have it just in case I lose my hard copy.

So just so we all know . . .for the record this is not my own recipe. I try to do the right thing when I post someones recipe or design and link you over to their site for more information . . .but in this case I just can't.

So here are the ingredients:

Cake

1 1/2 cups of organic sugar

4 organic eggs

1 cup organic canola or safflower oil

2 1/2 cups organic unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

4 cups grated organic carrots

1 cup organic applesauce

1 cup chopped organic walnuts or pecans

Frosting

3 packages (8 ounces each) organic cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) organic butter, softened

1 package (16 ounce) organic confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups chopped organic pecans (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare two 9-inch round cake pans by lightly brushing them with melted butter or oil and dusting all sides with flour. Shake our excess flour and set aside. (I actually spray with cooking spray and use parchment paper for the inner circle - to cut the circle of parchment paper I just use the outside of the pan to trace the pan and then cut to fit inside the pan). Either way works, I just prefer parchment paper so I know there will be no sticking going on.

Prepare you carrots by washing them in the sink. This is a great way for a 3 year old to help. I had Brooke stand on a chair at the sink and wash all of the carrots for me.

It was a very important job for her and she sang a song about washing the carrots the entire time. She cracks me up. We have a singing faze going on right now. . .we sing while we do everything.

Once they are washed, grate 4 cups of carrots. I grate and measure as I go and then save the left over carrots for dinner another night. You can get away with a 1 lb bag of carrots for this project. I bought a 2 lb bag so we can have carrots one night with dinner.

Next, in a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs together until fluffy. Stir in the oil. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Stir the sifted ingredients into the egg mixture.

Fold in the carrots.

Then fold in the applesauce and nuts.

Pour into prepared pans and bake 35-40 minutes, until done in the center.

Invert on a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, cream together first 4 ingredients and blend until smooth. Frost in between the layers. Assemble cake and frost sides and top. Decorate sides with chopped pecans or walnuts as you desire.