Freedom Day baking: Whip up a delicious carrot cake

Making a carrot cake is relatively simple and affordable. Cinnamon, nutmeg and carrots are some of the ingredients you can find in this delicious cake, and what better day to get baking than Freedom Day?

A key factor in executing a delicious carrot cake is making sure that it is moist. The ingredients that will ensure that the cake is moist are oil, freshly grated carrots, brown sugar, and apple sauce. Brown sugar makes the cake both moist and sweet. This makes it a better option than granulated sugar which only sweetens the cake. Freshly grated carrots are wet and create more moisture for the cake than packaged carrots.

Carrot cake for Freedom Day

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the cake

4 large eggs
300 g of brown sugar
100 g of granulated sugar
240 ml of vegetable or canola oil
260 g of chopped pecans
2 teaspoons of baking powder
312g of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
A half of a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 of a teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ginger
1/4 of a teaspoon of ground cloves
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
4 grated carrots

For the cream cheese frosting

450 g of cream cheese
15ml of milk or heavy cream
115g of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
450g of confectioner’s sugar
A pinch of salt

Method

Roasting pecans in the oven before adding them to the cake is a great way to increase the nutty flavor. This is optional and pecans should be roasted for 8 minutes.

The oven should be preheated to 150 degrees. Then the chopped pecans can be placed on the baking pan for 8 minutes. These should be removed from the oven and allowed to cool for 10-15 minutes.

The temperature of the oven should be then increased to 180 degrees. Then place parchment paper on the baking pan and grease it. The parchment paper will enable the cake to be removed easily from the baking pan.

Take a large bowl and mix the oil, brown sugar, apple sauce, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs until it is smooth.
Use another bowl and combine the baking soda, flour, nutmeg, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, salt, and ginger together.
Then add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together until combined. Add one cup of pecans and the grated carrots.

Pour the mixture into two baking pans for 30 to 35 minutes. Make sure that the cakes are thoroughly baked. Use a toothpick to test if they are baked. Then allow the cakes to cool before adding the cream cheese frosting.

How to make the frosting

Take a bowl and mix together butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, milk or cream, confectioner’s sugar, and a pinch of salt with a whisk until thoroughly combined.

Once the cakes have been cooled, the frosting can be spread evenly on the cakes. The pecans that are remaining can be used to garnish the cakes. The cakes should then be refrigerated for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve and enjoy this Freedom Day.

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