Best Carrot Cake Ever

Ingredients:

◦2 cups all-purpose flour
◦2 teaspoons baking soda
◦1/2 teaspoon salt
◦2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
◦3 large eggs
◦2 cups sugar
◦3/4 cup vegetable oil
◦3/4 cup buttermilk
◦2 teaspoons vanilla extract
◦2 cups grated carrot
◦1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
◦1 (3 1/2-ounce) can flaked coconut
◦1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Line 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; lightly grease and flour wax paper. Set pans aside.

2. Stir together flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

4. Beat eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in carrot, coconut, pinapple and walnuts.

5. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.

6. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze (recipe below) evenly over layers (I only used about 2/3 of the prepared glaze which I thought was perfect!); cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

7. Once the cake is cooled, slice each layer in half to give you a total of 4 layers. More layers = more frosting = me happy! Note: I put the 2 cake layers in the freezer for 45 minutes to make slicing them in half easier.

8. Make the cream cheese frosting according the recipe below. You can use a canned frosting but it won’t hold a candle to this delicious homemade icing!

9. Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. I’m a BIG frosting person so I made 1 1/2 batches of the cream cheese frosting to make sure the cake was completely covered. I also sprinkled chopped walnuts in between each frosted layer to take it over the top.

Buttermilk Glaze:

◦1 cup sugar
◦1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
◦1/2 cup buttermilk
◦1/2 cup butter or margarine
◦1 tablespoon light corn syrup
◦1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze Directions:

1.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:

◦3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
◦1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
◦1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
◦3 cups sifted powdered sugar
◦1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting Directions:

1.Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.

Recipe adapted from Southern Living October 1997

Source: BabyGizmo.com