Happy Easter! When I was trying to think of a spring recipe to make for this week, I thought, what’s more festive than carrots? So, here I am with a perfect carrot cake recipe for the Easter edition of my column.
After looking online for the most decadent and fun recipe, I found a three-layer cake on Southern Living. It has pecans, pineapple and coconut, too, which makes it a little different. I’ve made only a couple oflayer cakes in my life, and to be honest, they kind of scare me. Giving my mom a special shout out for her help on this one – which made it much less stressful.
I made the three round cakes, then placed them in the oven. Then, I got started on a glaze to go on each of the layers, and the cream cheese frosting for between each layer and on top. Both were simply enough, and adding a glaze is a really fun way to elevate a cake, apparently. Though, here’s the issue: the glaze increased the gooeyness and made it very hard to get it out of the pans.
The directions wanted me to keep the cakes in the pans and add the glaze drizzled on top, so that’s what I did. BUT, the first cake totally broke in half when I went to flip it out of the pan. This is when I started to doubt this entire recipe.
I started to lose some hope, I won’t lie. I then was very, very careful about getting the rest of the cakes out of the pans, and they turned out pretty unscathed. Since the bottom layer was in shambles, I put it all together as much as I could, then used icing to put it back together. Then I placed the next layer, then icing and so forth.
With the glaze, the cake became pretty heavy, which also made the sides a little droopy, especially since the bottom layer was a little smaller with the trauma it had endured.
Honestly, if I did this again, I wouldn’t use all the glaze and maybe just do a smaller drizzle on each layer. I also would recommend taking the cakes out of the pans before pouring the glaze on. Then I iced the top and sides, and it looked pretty good.
I know this all sounds bad, and to an extent I could be being dramatic. So, let me get to the point, this cake was so spongy. It turned out delicious! The flavors were great. The coconut added so much to it, and the pecans were subtle but needed. I’m a perfectionist, so although it didn’t look as great as it could, it was really good for not doing many layered cakes.
It was fun to do a harder recipe, and I enjoyed the glazing component. This recipe takes some time, but it was worth it – especially for a holiday or family gathering. A perfect spring treat, I’d say! Nothing I love more than keeping things in theme.
Here’s the link to the recipe.
Cake ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. table salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrot
1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
3 1/2 oz. flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with parchment paper; lightly grease and flour parchment paper. Set pans aside.
Stir together the first 4 ingredients—flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Beat eggs and next 4 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in carrot and next 3 ingredients.
Pour batter into prepared cake pans.
Bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze evenly over layers; cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes.
Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.
Buttermilk Glaze:
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 T. light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
11 ounces cream cheese, softened (about a block and a half)
1 (16-ounce) package powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract; beat at high speed 10 seconds or until smooth.
Do you have old or famous family recipes you think we should try? Email them to Sara at [email protected].
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