Family Heirloom Carrot Cake

Wildflour's Note:

This has been in my family for I don't even know how many years. Very happy to share with all of you. ENJOY! (I thought that I had lost this and about died, turned the house upside-down to find it....putting it on here for safe keeping!!!)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 1.0 2-layer ...

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups shredded carrots
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 cup raisins

Cream Cheese frosting

• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat oil, flour, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
2. Add and mix in cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and salt.
3. Mix in carrots.
4. Fold/mix in pecans and raisins.
5. Pour batter evenly into greased and floured 9" cake pans.
6. Bake in 350° oven for 50-55 minutes til toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool 5-10 minutes, turn out onto rack to cool completely.
8. For frosting:.
9. Beat ingredients til smooth.
10. Place 1 cake onto plate, frost top. Place second cake on top, frost sides and top of cake.
11. I store this in my airtight tupperware cake thingy in the refrigerator.
12. Variation: Spread a layer of apricot preserves between cake layers instead of cream cheese frosting. Then assemble cake and frost sides and top as usual. This takes about a 1/4-1/3 cup apricot preserves.

Reviews

[Lalaloula]

Made half of this as muffins for breakfast today and enjoyed it quite a lot! It was very moist and super tasty-I especially liked the combination of vanilla and cinnamon. The only problem I had with this, was that it was kinda oily even though I had already used 1/4 cup less than stated. Dunno what happened there, but Ill make sure to use even less oil next time as to make the muffins even more enjoyable. Oh and I also used less sugar than suggested (only 1/4 cup), due to personal taste preference. Other than that, though this was a real winner for me and Ill surely make it again. Thanks so much for sharing with us, Wildflour! Made and reviewed for May 09 Bevy Tag.

[Baby Kato]

This is a wonderful cake Wildflour. It has great texture and crumb, the flavor is outstanding. The cake is tender and moist, I loved the addition of raisins and pecans...so yummy. I made 1/2 the recipe and baked the cake batter in jumbo muffin tins. I got 6 beautiful mini cakes. Which I drizzled with your tasty cream cheese frosting. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful rich cake.