I have been making this recipe for years. I started making it for a golf course that didn’t have a pastry chef so I made this 3 times a week for 4 years….it’s safe to say that I perfected it over the years!!.
The recipe below is for squares (which works out great if you don’t have a Twinkie pan). If you would like to source a Twinkie pan, you might find one online or at a specialty bakery supply store (I bought mine at William’s Sonoma but they no longer sell them).
It literally takes 7 minutes to get in the oven if you do a bit of work and grate the carrots in bulk and freeze them. Take a bag of carrots out of the freezer when you want to bake the cake…by the time you measure your dry ingredients, they will be defrosted enough to dump in the mix…hence taking 7 minutes to get into the oven! Now there is now no excuse not to have dessert!
Below are all the directions…if you want to see if in real time, click on this link to see my you tube video for step by step directions!
Remember, buy a large bag of carrots and scrub them clean (no need to peel them). Remove the tops and grate in a food processor…then freeze in 2 cup measures. You’ll have ready carrots at a moment’s notice!
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar
1 1/4 oil
4 eggs
2 c grated carrots
1 c crushed pineapple, drained
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. If you have a twinkie pan, spray it with vegetable spray. If you don’t, spray a 9 X 13″ pan with cooking spray or line it with parchment (take a peek at this blog post for a trick to getting it to stay in the pan).
3. In a bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour through salt).
4. In another bowl, beat sugar and oil; add eggs and beat until light.
5. Add dry ingredients and stir; fold in carrots and pineapple.
6. Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 350 for 40 – 50 minutes for a 9X13″ pan or about 20-25 min for a twinkie pan.
7. Cool and cut into 12 squares (or alternatively, if you are using a twinkie mold to make Twinkies, remove from the pan and cool).
Icing:
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 c butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups icing sugar
1. Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth.
2. Cut each cake square horizontally and fill with frosting (or pipe the frosting into the bottom of the Twinkies as seen in the pictures below).
3. Replace with top cake and wrap individually. Freeze them and take them out, one at the time, for fresh carrot cake at any time.
NOTE: If you have leftover icing, take a peek at this nifty trick!!
If you would like to watch my you Tube video for this, take a peek here!!
first batch of carrots ready to use (or freeze!)
what the batter should look like
piping into the bottom of the twinkies
Icing in a piping bag is easier to deal with (or just scrape it into a baggie and snip the corner)
