Award Winning Carrot Cake

Award winning is an understatement for this carrot cake recipe. In fact, I took all of the other carrot cake recipes out of my recipe binder and threw them away, don't waste your time anywhere else. The perfect balance of richness, lightness and creaminess. I can't find one thing wrong with this Award Winning Carrot Cake, another fabulous recipe from Candy Jamamas!

picture from Candy Jamamas 

Award Winning Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

4 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce (I use unsweetened for recipes)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

3 cup grated carrots (use the bigger grating holes so you don't end up with mush)

3/4 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

8 oz. can crushed pineapple (drain most of the juice out)

Cream Cheese Icing:

1 stick butter, softened

12 oz. cream cheese (1 1/2 bricks), softened

3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, sugars and vanilla. In a smaller bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to large bowl and mix well. Stir in carrots, pineapple, coconut and pecans. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Knife inserted in center of cake should come out clean. The cake will be very dark on top: it's not burning! Let cool in pans for about ten minutes, then run a knife around edge and carefully turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. When cool, frost with cream cheese icing.

To make icing: Beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add vanilla. Beat in powdered sugar about a cup at a time until well-blended.