Old Fashioned Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

Do you ever take a bite of something and it floods you with great memories? This old fashioned carrot cake with cream cheese icing is just that cake! It’s easy and everyone is guaranteed to love it!!

I’m sure you all have a recipe that you can recite by memory because you’ve made it so many time!! Well, this is my recipe because have been making this recipe for years!  Way back when my children were young, I used to bake from home for s few clients. One of my clients was a golf course who didn’t have a pastry chef so I made this for them…3 times a week for 4 years! I think it’s safe to say that I perfected it after all that time!!.

The recipe below is for carrot cake square -but I love it as a Twinkie!!  If you would like to source a Twinkie pan, you might find one online or at a specialty bakery supply store like this one (I bought mine at William’s Sonoma but they no longer sell them). You can also find them on Amazon.

How Can You Change This Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing:

• You can make them as directed in a baking pan and then sandwich the frosting between the squares to make it a ‘sandwich’.
• You can bake them in a Twinkie pan (see above for suggested stores to purchase them at). Filling them is easy by piping the icing into the bottom in three spots to make it seem as thought the icing is in the middle.
• Bake them in cupcakes and frost the top of bake them larger by using mini spring form pans (see below).
• You can make them into a layer cake (as you can see the ‘naked’ cake below with homemade marzipan carrots).

The Secret To Getting This Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Icing into the Oven in 7 Minutes:

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!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

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Ingredients

  

Cake:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup crushed pineapple drained

Icing:

• 8 oz 1 package cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups icing sugar

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9 X 13″ pan with cooking spray or line it with parchment
• In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
• In another bowl, beat sugar and oil; add eggs and beat until light.
• Add in dry ingredients and stir; fold in carrots and pineapple.
• Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 350 for 40 – 50 minutes for a 9X13″ pan
• Cool and cut into 12 squares.
• For the icing, in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all ingredients and beat until smooth.
• Cut each cake square horizontally and fill with frosting
• Replace with top cake and wrap individually in plastic wrap.  Freeze them and take them out, one at the time, for fresh carrot cake at any time.
• NOTE: If you have leftover icing, freeze it in an air-tight container.
• Notes:
• If you’d like to make these into Twinkies (you can find Twinkie pans online) or cupcakes and bake for 20-25 min. Pipe the frosting into the bottom of the Twinkies or cupcakes to make it seem as though it is in the middle