I’m a big fan of carrot cake and this is the best I’ve ever tasted. The cake is super moist and the icing makes a great combo.
See also Mrs Brown’s video of Pineapple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Choose either pecans or walnuts and blitz them in a food processor to crush them quickly.
Cake
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Drain into a bowl:
- 398 mL can of crushed pineapple
Add to pineapple juice:
- 1 cup raisins
Set raisin mixture aside to soak.
Add to pineapple chunks:
- 5 shredded carrots
Set carrot mixture aside.
Add to mixer bowl:
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts, crushed
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup veg oil
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
Mix well.
Add to mixer bowl:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
Mix.
Add carrot pineapple mixture and fold into batter.
Drain the raisin mixture and add the raisins to the mixing bowl. (Use the pineapple juice for some other recipe!)
Pour into 9x13 pan.
Bake 350°F for 45-55 minutes.
Icing
Add to clean mixer bowl:
- 1 block (250 g) cream cheese
- 0.25 cup butter
Mix.
Add to mixer bowl:
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1.5 cups icing sugar
Mix with fork.
Fold in:
- 0.25 cup pecans, crushed
Spread icing on top of warm slices of cake to let it melt over the sides. You can refrigerate the icing separate from the cake to make every serving have cool icing melted over warm cake.
About
I reduced Mrs Brown’s icing to half because it made a ton: enough for at least two cakes.
Next time I’ll try using less oil and try sprinking the pecans on top of the icing instead of mixing them in.
Mrs Brown says you can completely omit the raisins but also omit the pineapple juice (and only use the chunks).
