Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Friday! What a better way to head into the weekend than with cake?! Carrot cake is probably in my top 3 favorite cakes, behind classic chocolate and vanilla of course :) so I figured it was time to make my own! Yes, that's right, it's one of my favorite cakes and i've never even made one from scratch..until now! I'm SO super happy with the results and so thrilled to share it with you guys! Let's get to it...

Ingredients:

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

2 Cups Finely Shredded Carrots

8 oz. Sour Cream

1 Cup Vegetable Oil

4 Large Eggs

2 Teaspoons Baking Soda

2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1/4 Cup Finely Chopped Pecans

Frosting:

8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 Cup (1/2 stick) Butter, softened

4 Cups Confectioner's Sugar

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Pinch of Salt

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, beat together the carrots, sugar, sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; gradually beat into wet mixture.

Pour batter into a greased 13x9 baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan before frosting.

For the frosting, add the butter, cream cheese, salt and vanilla into a large mixing bowl and beat until well blended. Gradually beat in the confectioner's sugar and mix well until everything is evenly incorporated and the frosting is smooth.

 * I got out 2 small bowls and took a little bit of frosting out and put it in eavh bowl and dyed one of them green and the other orange to make little carrot decorations on the cake after I spread it with the white cream cheese frosting. I pre-sliced the cake as a guide because I wanted a decoration on each piece. I just put the dyed frosting in sandwich bags, snipped one of the corners and piped the carrot by zig-zaging the bag, getting smaller as I went down the carrot, and then just simply doing some lines for the green stems.

Serves 16