Ok yeah, that’s a mouthful to say, but dang this cake is so delicious I’ll say it all day! Carrot Snack Cake with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting for me please!
Carrot cake was one of those desserts I never chose as a child. Most likely from the presence of a vegetable in cake. Oh how young and silly I was. Carrot cake might be one of the best cakes there are, and this carrot cake will most certainly make even the toughest skeptic a true lover of carrot cake for life!
My recipe uses a number of things to create a perfectly moist carrot cake. Number one, CARROTS! and lots of them. I packed a ton into this because they are the star of the show and they truly do add a perfectly moist element to the cake.
I also use high fat sour cream in my recipe. It adds a subtle tang to the cake and a perfectly moist crumb!
I use Black Walnuts and Pecans in my version. If you don’t prefer those and like slivered almonds or plain old walnuts better just sub those in instead. I like both purple and golden raisins so I do a half and half of those as well, and there’s no need to soak your raisins just dump em’ in the pile. Another addition to my recipe is shredded coconut. We are using the dry-er unsweetened coconut here, not the moist sweetened shredded coconut. That would add too much liquid and sweetness to the cake over all.
We are also going to top this beauty with a layer of gorgeous Browned Butter Cream Cheese frosting. The flavor of the browned butter adds a richness you must try and I use salted butter in my recipe to balance the sweetness of the frosting. If you’ve never browned butter, don’t worry it’s really easy. Just set a small saucepan on the stove top over a med/low flame. Add your butter and let it melt away for a couple minutes. It will start to bubble up and that’s my cue to start gently stirring with a spatula and lean in. You lean in to start smelling the butter as it bubbles. The foamy bubbles will subside and you will quickly notice a nutty aroma and the color of the butter will be slightly darkened. Remove the pan from the heat and you are all set. Just let that cool in a covered bowl until it gets down to room temp. I usually do mine the night before and leave it out overnight.
Enjoy this cake, she’s a beaut!
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Carrot Snack Cake with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- 9×12 Baking Sheet Pan
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 1 cup Granular Sugar
- 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 3 large Eggs Room Temp
- 1/2 cup Canola Oil
- 3/4 cup Sour Cream Room Temp
- 2 cups AP Flour + 1 Tbsp more, separate
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/2 tsp Ground Clove
- 1/2 tsp Pink or Sea Salt
- 2 1/2 cups Freshly Grated Carrots Squeeze with paper towels to remove some moisture.
- 1 cup Chopped Nuts see notes above
- 1/2 cup Unsweetened Shreeded Coconut
- 3/4 cup Raisins
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz Cream Cheese Room Temp
- 1/2 cup Salted Butter Browned and cooled to Room Temp
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar sifted
Instructions
For the Carrot Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and line a 9×12 baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl add sugar, brown sugar, eggs, oil and sour cream. Mix with a wisk until fully combined and smooth in texture, about 2 minutes. Set that aside.
- In a separate bowl, sift together your 2 cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, clove and salt. Set that aside.
- Grab one more bowl and add your carrots, nuts, coconut and raisins. Sprinkle over the remaining Tbsp of flour and mix completley. Set aside.
- Dump your flour mixture into your wet bowl and gentley fold together with a large spatula until almost mixed.
- Add your bowl of carrot mix and continue folding until completley mixed. You want to fully incorporate everything but be mindful to not over mix. Even though this cake has a LOT in it, we still want the crumb to be nice and light.
- Once everything is combined, pour your cake batter into your prepared sheet pan and bake for 35 min or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Let cool in pan completely for 1 hour on a cooling rack or cool countertop. Remove from pan and let cool completely before frosting.
For the Browned Butter Cream Cheese frosting
- Brown 1 stick of salted butter and let come to room temp and solidify.
- In a large bowl add your cream cheese and cooled browned butter and cream with a hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape sides with spatula as needed.
- Add vanilla and mix completely.
- Working a 1/2 cup at a time, add your powdered sugar mixing on low until completely added. Scrape the sides and mix on med/high until completely smooth with no lumps. Room Temp ingredients will ensure you get a smooth texture, if you still see any lumps keep mixing until smooth.
- Smooth over cooled Carrot Cake and cut into snack sized cake squares! Enjoy.
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