I had the craziest craving for carrot cake (probably from all of these blogs posting Easter recipes) so I decided to throw together one for myself. Not a cake-cake because I didn’t want to fuss with layers and have that much. Just a denser blondie type batter with all the flavouring and carrots required.
Feel free to add raisins or swap the pecans for walnuts.
What you need:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup finely grated carrot
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
Icing:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 2 cups sifted powdered icing sugar
- pinch salt
- 1-2 tbsp milk
Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large bowl mix melted butter, sugar, and eggs until smooth. Add carrot. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just combined. Stir in toasted pecans.
- Line a 9×9 brownie pan with parchment paper, and pour in batter.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until lightly golden on edges and baked through.
- Let cool completely.
- In a large bowl combine butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and salt. Mix and gradually add milk to desired consistency.
- Spread cream cheese icing over cake with an offset spatula. Place this cake in the fridge for a few minutes to set up the icing before slicing.
If you wish, set aside some extra icing to use for decorating. I dyed some orange and red and we piped a few carrots on top.
Enjoy and happy Easter!
